后现代主义思潮与中国新时期小说

【作者】 王源；

【导师】 杨守森；

【作者基本信息】 山东师范大学 ， 文艺学， 2012， 博士

【摘要】 自20世纪中期至今的半个多世纪里，西方后现代主义思潮日渐崛起，以强势的渗透力和弥散性席卷哲学、史学、社会学、人类学、心理学、文学、艺术等研究及创作领域，并且成为这诸多领域中的关注热点乃至焦点。从20世纪80年代初开始，西方后现代主义思潮开始传入中国，各种相关的理论著述以及后现代主义文学作品被越来越多地翻译、介绍给当代中国的研究者和文学艺术创作者。具体到文艺学、美学研究的范畴，对于后现代主义这样一个涵盖繁杂的庞大的概念体系，关注其对于文学领域的渗透、延伸与阐释的现实情境与实际意义，并讨论西方后现代主义思潮与中国新时期文学发展之间的关系，对我们更加全面、深入地观照和思考当代中国文学的创作实践以及理论研究有着十分重要的作用。自20世纪80年代中期以来，在中国新时期文学的发展中，具有某些后现代主义特征、色彩的文学作品开始不断涌现；同时在文学批评及研究领域中，“后现代主义”也成为众多学者展开批评及研究实践的重要理论参考。伴随这种现象出现的，是一系列值得我们深入探讨的问题。本文以新时期小说中出现的具有后现代主义特征、色彩的小说作品为主要观照和讨论对象，从理论分析与创作实践两个向度的结合性研究出发，以相关的西方后现代主义理论为参照物对新时期小说的创作实践进行剖析，并结合文本的细读，深入探讨西方后现代主义思潮与中国新时期的文学理论及文学创作之间的互动关系。整篇论文通过梳理西方后现代主义思潮在当代中国的传播，以及中国的小说创作者及文学批评、研究者对于后现代主义文学及文化思潮的接受、吸纳、借鉴、融合，尝试探讨西方后现代主义思潮对于新时期小说观念发生的嬗变所发生的显在或者潜在的影响，概述新时期小说中的对于“人”、“社会”、“历史”、“文化”、“性别”等主题折射着后现代主义精神特征的影像呈现，以及新时期小说中所体现出的多个层面的后现代主义艺术特征。在此基础之上，本文尝试构建一个宏观的理论分析视角，来审视西方后现代主义思潮的冲击和启发对于新时期小说发展所具有的客观积极性意义，同时也理性剖析西方后现代主义思潮带给新时期小说创作的某些负面影响。通过这种全方位的深入剖析，本文尝试总结新时期后现代主义风格的小说的价值以及存在的种种问题，并对如何重新建构当代中国文学的文学理性、文学精神、文学道德以及文学理想的问题，进行某种可能性的探讨。第一章“西方后现代主义思潮在中国的传播”,为论文的全面讨论提供包括概念厘清在内的理论前提，并界定论文的探讨主题和范围，对于西方后现代主义思潮与新时期小说创作及文学批评之间的互动关系情况进行概述。本章分为四节，第一节“后现代主义及其文学思潮概述”的主要内容是借助探源和发生学方法，厘清“后现代主义”概念的内涵和外延，概括后现代主义文学思潮的主要流派及代表作家，以及后现代主义文学的基本理论主张和文学特征。第二节“西方后现代主义文学及文化思潮在中国的传播”的主要内容是梳理清楚西方后现代主义思潮尤其是其文学、文化思潮自20世纪80年代开始传入中国的相关情况。第三节“西方后现代主义文学及文化思潮对新时期文坛的影响”主要是简要概括西方后现代主义文学及文化思潮对于新时期小说创作和新时期文学批评实践的影响。第四节“‘后现代主义’在中国新时期语境中的自适性发展”，则简要分析包括小说在内的新时期具有后现代主义特征的文学所经历的从“舶来品”到自主性成长的发展过程。第二章“后现代主义文学思潮与新时期小说观念的嬗变”,从总体上概述新时期小说在观念层面发生着的根本性嬗变，呈现出具有后现代主义特征的观念表征，主要体现在小说本体论的阐释、小说叙事论的延展以及小说价值论的探讨三个层面。后现代主义理论与思潮在深层上改变了中国当代的小说观念，从而彰显出“现代”之“后”在新时期文坛的深远意蕴和反响。本章分为三节，第一节“小说本体论的阐释：从功能载体到审美客体的转换”，通过对传统的以功能载体为核心的小说本体论的分析，和新时期出现的以审美客体为根本的小说本体论的探讨，指出新时期的小说本体论已经置身于从社会、文化层面的功能载体向美学、文艺学层面的审美客体的裂变之中。第二节“小说叙事论的延展：从方法论到本体论的突破”，则重点讨论小说叙事论的问题，指出在对西方后现代主义文学的模仿、借鉴及由受其启发而逐渐自主创新的过程中，新时期小说对传统叙事法方法论的较为广泛的突破和延展，在文本的去主体化、叙事的破碎与断裂、语言结构的拼贴、情节的漂移、界限的消解等诸多方面，均体现出新时期小说鲜明的将叙事从一种小说创作的方法提升为小说创作的本体性意义的特征。第三节“小说价值论的探讨：功利价值与审美价值的权衡”，主要讨论新时期小说价值论所发生的转变，指出新时期具有后现代主义特征的小说对于小说价值的认知游走在“用”与“美”之间，一方面放弃了传统小说的宏大功利价值维度而在小说之“用”上进行了全新的开拓，另一方面对小说的多样性审美价值也有了较为深入的、全新的认识。第三章“新时期小说呈现的后现代主义影像”，主要讨论通过对西方后现代主义文学的主动学习借鉴或者受其启迪、激发，并结合新时期特定的社会时代语境，新时期的小说创作者们对于人、社会、历史、文化和性别等重大文学命题的带有后现代色彩的思索与书写。第一节“小说作品中的‘人’：个体化生存主体或平面化存在符号”，对于新时期具有后现代主义特征的小说中的人物，所呈现出的特定群体或精神理念的典型及象征意义的剥离、精神信仰与终极意义的消解、生存状态与生命体验的非理性、性格的破碎与模糊进行了概述式分析。第二节“小说作品中的‘社会’：平面化、断裂化、欲望化的转型期社会”，结合对滋生后现代主义的转型期社会土壤的中西比照式分析，观照新时期具有后现代主义特征的小说对平面化、断裂化、欲望化转型期社会的表现。第三节“小说作品中的‘历史’：解构宏大叙事之后的重新发现”，重点审视新时期具有后现代主义特征的小说中历史主题作品的创作，结合对其理论准备与时代积淀的概述，总结这些小说中呈现的游走于虚构与写实之间的历史叙事，以偶然性、不确定性消解历史的本质规律性，以私人化的历史图景颠覆集体性的历史记忆，以对边缘化的开掘取代正统的主流关注等特点的个人视角透视的历史影像。第四节“小说作品中的‘文化’：消解固有文化中心后的多元化呈现”，探讨受到西方后现代主义思潮的启发性影响，在新时期具有后现代主义特征的小说作品中，体现出创作者们感应着时代的深刻变革，对国家和社会长期以来的主导性文化进行的重新审视和反思，以及借助文学创作尝试构建文化多元化融合的开放性发展趋向。第五节“小说作品中的‘性别’：两性关系中女性主体意识的凸显”，结合对西方女性主义理论的综观，概述新时期女性主义小说的几个方面的后现代主义特征体现，包括彻底颠覆男权话语体系中的传统女性标签，凸显生存困境中女性的主体意识觉醒，消解宏大叙事遮蔽后的女性自发性选择，和摒弃男性中心的女性自我世界建构。第四章“新时期小说的后现代主义艺术追求及特征”，主要从创作视角、叙事理念、审美立场，以及情节呈现、时空结构、叙事角度、表达技巧等几个方面，尝试从整体上概括新时期具有后现代主义特征的小说创作中所体现出的创作观念、艺术追求、文本结构和叙事特征。新时期具有后现代主义特征的小说的创作视角主要是以“形而下”消解“形而上”神话。新时期具有后现代主义特征的小说的叙事理念表现为对于现实和虚构之间关系的反传统式处理，包括虚构在文本中从潜在转向显在和照相式写实与主观化表现的画面拼合。新时期具有后现代主义特征的小说的审美立场体现为以主动性的全面“审丑”选择，颠覆和突破传统小说的美学意识和范式。新时期具有后现代主义特征的小说的情节呈现，打破传统小说中情节“起因-发展-结局”的完整连贯性结构，取而代之的或是支离破碎的片段堆叠，或是开放性结构的没有缘起亦没有结局；颠覆传统小说中的合乎理性的情节逻辑，转为或是突兀地悖离了因果关系的断裂性拼合，或是荒诞地颠倒了因果关系的走不出去的怪圈。新时期具有后现代主义特征的小说的时空结构，体现为对客观时空进行了突破性的消解与重构，主要表现在：在时间处理上打破客观的时间链条并重新组合，刻意缩短或者拉长时间，将瞬间性与连续性混合起来，或使片断的时间与连贯的时间交错混杂，或用片断的时间的凸显取消连贯的时间的永恒性；在空间呈现方面大胆使用跳跃、并置、拼贴、章节交替等方式，追求营造作品的空间性效果。新时期具有后现代主义特征的小说的叙事角度，主要体现在对叙述者的设置及其讲述的构建都呈现出多样性和不定性，包括叙述者对于“作者”的符号化指涉与解构，运用第二人称叙事发掘叙述者与叙述接受者的主体间性，第一人称叙述者的多样化设置。对于新时期具有后现代主义特征的小说的表达技巧，则主要分析了其对于反讽、戏仿及互文性的运用。第五章“后现代主义视角对于新时期小说发展的价值”，主要审视西方后现代主义思潮的冲击和启发对于新时期小说发展所具有的客观积极性意义。首先是催生了新时期具有后现代主义特征的小说的开放性多元价值取向与多元化抒写：一方面，西方后现代主义思想引发了从二元向多元的思维模式转变，新时期具有后现代主义特征的小说创作者以开放性的多元价值取向呈现突破固有的统一性价值判断模式；另一方面也促使多元化的创作格局渐生。其次是新时期文学中反思性思维的形成及读者视域的开拓：在西方后现代主义思潮的启发下，新时期小说开始逐渐重视读者的主体性地位，和读者对于作品意义生成所发挥的效用，以及在文学创作活动的作者-作品-读者的有机构成中，互动性的反思性思维的萌生。第六章“新时期小说的后现代追求之反思”，着重理性剖析了西方后现代主义思潮带给新时期小说创作的某些负面影响。第一节分析新时期小说的创作在后现代主义的渗透影响下，呈现出三种追求与相应的困境：不断求“新”与繁华易失、审美纯化及“审丑”化与态度漠然、世俗化与“拜物教”。第二节侧重于审视新时期小说的创作中出现的缺乏节制甚至过于泛滥的“非理性”倾向，并提出需要思考文学中理性重建的问题。第三节重点审视、观照后现代主义的解构思想对于新时期小说创作所产生的消极影响。结语“文学理想的可能性建构”，基于全文对新时期具有后现代主义特征的小说创作“解构性”实践的全面观照，以及对其积极意义及负面效应的辨析，笔者尝试对于如何重新建构当代中国文学的文学理性、文学精神、文学道德、文学理想的问题，进行某种可能性的探讨。更多还原

【Abstract】 The past half century has witnessed the gradual rising of the thought ofPostmodernism in the western countries, which has great impact on the fields ofPhilosophy, History, Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, Literature, Architectureand Art in respect of research and creation with its strong penetration anddiffusivity, and Postmodernism has already became an hot issue or even the focusof the above fields. Ever since the beginning of 1980s, the thought ofPostmodernism started to be introduced into China from the western countries, andall kinds of related theories and works, as well as literary writings ofPostmodernism, were translated and presented to researchers and creators of worksof literature and art of modern China. In the specific fields of Literature and Art, inregard to the huge concept system of Postmodernism which includescomprehensive contents, attentions should be paid to the actuality and significanceof its infiltration, extension and interpretation to the field of Literature, discussionsshould be made in term of the relation of Postmodernist thought and thedevelopment of Literature in the new period of modern China, so that we can havemore comprehensive and deeper observation and understanding on the creation andresearch of Chinese modern Literature in the new period. From mid-1980s, thisnew period of Chinese Literature has been witnessing the constant appearance ofliteral works with some postmodernist features and colors; at the same time,Postmodernism has become an significant theoretical reference for numerousscholars to express their comments and carry on their study. With the occurrence ofthis phenomenon, large numbers of issues are worthy of discussion come into oursight.This paper takes postmodernist features and colors in fictions of the newperiod as main reflecting and discussing objects, and starts from combinations of the two dimensions of theoretical analysis and creative practice. Using the Westernpostmodern theories as a new reference in the analysis of creative practices offictions in the new period, with a close reading of the text, this paper makes anin-depth exploration of the interactive relationship between WesternPostmodernism and Chinese literary theory and literary creations in the newperiod.The entire paper combs the spread of Western Postmodernism incontemporary China, as well as Chinese novel creators, literary critics andresearchers’accepting, absorbing, learning and integrating of the postmodernistliterary and cultural thought, attempts to explore the Western Postmodernismtrends’present or potential impact on fiction evolution in the new period, andoverviews the mirrored presentation of the new period fictions’reflection ofpostmodernism spiritual characteristic in themes about“human”,“society”,“history”,“culture”and“gender”. On this basis, the paper tries to construct amacro theoretical analysis perspective in order to examine the impact of WesternPostmodernism trends and inspirits the objective and positive significance for thenew period fictions, and at the main time, makes a rational analysis of WesternPostmodernism trends’negative impacts on the new period fiction creations.Through a full range of in-depth analysis, the paper attempts to summarize thevalues and existing problems of the new period fictions with postmodernistfeatures, and to make possible discussions about how to reconstruct modernChinese literature’s literary rationality, literary spirit, and literary virtue as well asliterary ideal.The first chapter“The Dissemination of Postmodernism in China”providestheoretical premises including concept clarification for comprehensive discussionof the paper, and defines the paper’s subject and scope and overviews interactiverelationships among Western Postmodernism trends, the new period fiction creation and literary criticism. This chapter is divided into four sections. The maincontents of the first section“Overview of the Postmodernism and Its LiteraryTrends”is to clarify the connotation and extension of the concept of“postmodernism”, summarizes the postmodernism literary trends’major schoolsand representative writers and postmodernism literature’s basic theory of ideas andliterary features by the help of origin explorations and occurrence methods. Themain content of the second section“Western Postmodernism Literature andLiterary Trends’Spread in China”is to comb information about how westernPostmodernism trends, especially its literary and cultural trends, were introducedto China since 1980s. The third section“Impacts of Western PostmodernismLiterature and Cultural Trends on New Period Literary World”is a brief summaryof Western Postmodernism literature and cultural trends’impacts on the new periodfiction creations and literary criticism practices. The fourth section“Postmodernism’s Self-adaptive Development in Chinese New Period Context”isa brief analysis of the development process of the new period literatures withpostmodernist features, including fictions, from“imports”to autonomous growth.The second chapter“Evolutions of Postmodernism Literature andTransmutations of Concept of the New Period Fictions”generally overviews thefundamental transmutations of the new period fictions taking place in the conceptlevel, showing the concept characterization of Postmodernism which mainlyreflected in three levels, including interpretation of the novel ontology, extensionof the novel narrative and discussion of the novel axiology. Postmodernism theoryand trends deeply changed the modern Chinese novel concept and highlighted thefar-reaching implication and repercussions of the“post”of“modernism”onChinese literary world. This chapter is divided into three sections. The first section“Interpretation of Novel Ontology: Conversion From the Function Carrier to theAesthetic Object”discuses the new period novel ontology based on aesthetic object, points out that the new period novel ontology is under the exposure of fission froma function carrier in social and cultural dimension to a aesthetic object in aestheticsand literature dimension. The second section“Extension of Narrative Theory:Breakthrough from Methodology to Ontology”focuses on the issue of narrativetheory, points out that in the process of imitating, learning from the westernpostmodernism literature and independent innovation by its inspirations, the newperiod fiction has made wider breakthrough and extension of the traditionalnarrative methodology and reflected distinctive characteristic of the promotion ofnarrative from a writing method to the creative ontological significance on theaspect of text de-subjectivalization, narrative collage crushing and fracture,language structure collage, plot drift, and digestion boundaries. The third section“Discussion of the Novel Axiology: Trade-off of Utilitarian Value and AestheticValue”mainly discusses the changes of novel axiology in the new period, pointsout that new period novel with postmodernist features’cognition to the novel valuewalks between“use”and”beauty”; on one hand, it has new extensions on“use”byabandoning traditional novel’s macro utilitarian value dimensions, on the otherhand, it has a deep and new understanding of the divers aesthetic value of thenovel.The third chapter“Postmodernist Image in the New Period Fictions”mainlydiscusses the new period novel writers’initiative learning, enlightenment andinspiration of the Western Postmodernism literature, combination of specific socialcontext in the new period, and thinking and writing about the postmodernity ofmajor literary propositions related with human, society, history, culture and gender.The first section“’Human’in Works of Fictions: Individual Survival Subjects orPlanar Existing Symbol”has a summarized analysis on the symbolic peeling ofspecific group or spiritual concept, digestion of spiritual beliefs and the ultimatemeaning, irrationality of survival status and life experience, fragmentation and illegibility of the character which are all presented by characters in new periodnovels with postmodernist features. The second section“Society’in Works ofFictions: Planar, Fractured and Orectic Transforming Society”takes contrastinganalysis of the transitional social soil breeding postmodernism, reflects theprojection of the planar, fractured and orectic transforming society in new periodfictions with postmodernist features. The third section“’History’in Works ofFictions: Deconstruction the Re-discovery after Grand Narratives”focuses oncreations of historical themed fictions with postmodernist features, overviews theirtheoretical preparation and era heritage, summarize their historical narrativewalking between fiction and reality, draws historical images through personalperspective, such as uses the accidental and non-rational uncertainty to digest thenatural regularity of history, uses personal history picture to subvert the collectivehistorical memory, uses marginalization digging to replace the orthodoxmainstream attention. The fourth section“’Culture’in Works of Fictions:Diversified Show Dispelling the Dominant Cultural Centre”explores by theinspiring influence of western postmodernism, the new period fictions withpostmodernist features reflect the opening development trends that the writers arere-examining and rethinking the national and social long-term major culture alongwith the profound changes of the era, and trying to build a pluralistic culture fusionby literary creations. The fifth section“’Gender’in Works of Fictions: Highlight ofFemale Consciousness in Gender Relations”surveys the western feminist theory,overviews several aspects of postmodernist presentations in new period feministnovels including revolutionizes the traditional female tags in the Masculinediscourse system, highlights women’s main consciousness in survival plight,digests women’s spontaneous choice obscured by grand narrative, abandons themale-centered women self-world construction.The fourth chapter“Postmodernist Features of the New Period Fictions”tries to generally summarize the new period fictions with postmodernist features’creative concept, literary pursuit, text structure and narrative feature from theaspects of creative perspective, narrative concept, aesthetic position, plotpresentation, spatial and temporal structure, narrative point and presentation skills.Creative perspective of the new period fictions with postmodernist features isbased on "physical" taking place the "metaphysical" myth. Narrative concept of thenew period fictions with postmodernist features performs as anti-traditionalprocessing of the relationship between reality and fiction, including transferringfiction from potential to present and combining screens of Photographic-stylerealism and subjective performance. Aesthetic stance of the new period fictionswith postmodernist features performs as subversion and breakthrough of aestheticawareness and paradigm of traditional fictions by initiative "Ugliness" in aestheticchoosing. Presentation of plot in the new period fictions with postmodernistfeatures breaks the“causes-development-ending”coherent structure in traditionalfiction plots and chooses to use fragmented clips or opening structures withoutorigin or outcome; overturns the reasonable plot and logic and turns to fracturedcombination which is abruptly against causal relationships, or strange circleswhich paradoxically reverse the causal relationships and can never get out of.Spatial and temporal structure of the new period fictions with postmodernistfeatures performs as the groundbreaking deconstruction and reconstruction ofobjective time and space, mainly including: breaks and rebuild the chain of time,combines instant and continuum, intentionally shortens or extends the time,interlaces fragmental time with consistent time, highlights the fragmental time tocancels the eternity of the coherent time, boldly uses jumping, apposition, collage,chapter alternation in space presentation to create the space effect. Narrative pointof the new period fictions with postmodernist features mainly performs as diversityand uncertainty on the setting of the narrator and narrative structure, mainly including narrator’s symbolic referent and deconstruction of the“author”, usingsecond person narrative to explore the connection between the narrator and thenarratee and divers set of the first person narrator. Presentation skill of the newperiod fictions with postmodernist features mainly performs as the analysis of theuse of irony, parody and intertextuality.The fifth chapter“The Value of the Postmodernist Perspective to theDevelopment of the New Period Fictions”will mainly focus on the actual positiveimportance that the impact and inspiration of the western Postmodernist thoughthave on the development of fiction in the new period. First, the diversifieddescription of fictions with postmodernist features in overturn and deconstructionin the new period: on the one hand, Postmodernist thought triggers thetransformation of the model of thinking, from duality to plurality, and the authorsof the new period fictions with postmodernist features break the single pattern oflanguage with their open, multiple levels of preference of value; on the other hand,it also promotes the gradual appearance of a divergent pattern of writing. Second,the formation of reflective thinking and the broadening of the view of readers: withthe inspiration of the western Postmodernist thought, authors of the new periodfictions with postmodernist features start to give weight to the subjective role ofreaders, the effect that readers have on the significance of their works, and theemergence of interactive reflective thinking in the creation activity of literature,which follows the pattern of author-works-reader.The sixth chapter“The Introspection to the Postmodernist Style of the NewPeriod Fictions”will rationally analyze some certain negative effects that thePostmodernist thought of the western countries has on the writing of fictions in thenew period. The first part of this chapter will focus on the analysis of the threeaspirations of fictions in the new period and their respective dilemmas, which areresulted from the infiltration and influence of Postmodernism, i.e. constant pursuing of“newness”and the lost of flourishing scene, purified aesthetic taste,"Ugliness" in aesthetic choosing and indifferent attitude, secularization and“fetishism”. The second part pays attention to the examination of the immoderateor even inundant preference of irrationality in the new period, and argues that thereis a need to think about the rational reconstruction of literature. The third partmainly discusses the negative influences of Deconstructionism to the fictions in thenew period.The conclusion“The Possible Construction of Literary Ideal”tries to thinkabout the solution upon which some sort of discussion on possibility will be made,regarding the question of how to reconstruct the ideal, spirit, and virtue of literature,with the comprehensive examination and observation on the influence ofPostmodernism on fictions in the new period. To realize the rational reconstructionof literature, that one possible way is that maybe we should look for the originalobligation and real meaning of literature and art, on the basis of returning to theclassical rationality.更多还原