近代小说城市书写的变革及其小说史意义——以上海、广州为中心

The Transformation of Urban Writing in Modern Fictions and Its Significance of Fiction History: With a Focus on Shanghai and Guangzhou

鸦片战争的失利,迫使清政府开口通商,以上海、广州为代表的一批由进出口贸易带动起来的新型商业贸易城市随之兴起。这些城市所形成的新结构和新功能,打破了中国传统城市的旧模式。作为与城市关联密切的一种文学样式,近代小说中的城市书写亦随之呈现出相应的变革。城市书写的空间不断拓展,由对城市地标建筑的笼统书写发展到进入城市肌理的各种生活细节。小说主角由传统市民向近代都市人蜕变,而在叙事形式上则呈现出从注重时间维度到以空间为中心的转换。近代小说城市书写的这些变革,成为都市小说由古代向现代过渡的桥梁,具有了一种承上启下的小说史意义。

After the forced opening of such cities as Shanghai and Guangzhou for international trade,the traditional modes of culture in these cities were changed. Fiction,as one important literary genre closely associated with urbanity,also underwent transformations in terms of the urban writing in China. In modern Chinese fictions,the space of urban writing was continuously extended,with the descriptive focus shifting from the general coverage of landmark buildings to the detailed exploration of urban life,the protagonists shifting from traditional city dwellers into modern urban citizens,and the narrative form shifting from centering round time to centering round space. These changes in urban writing can be read as the bridge between the ancient to the modern in Chinese urban fictions,and they hold remarkable significance in the transition in the developmental history of Chinese fictions.