20世纪二、三十年代美国文学断代史研究之我见

Period Study: American Literature of the 1920s and the 1930s

本文的第一部分讨论外国文学断代史研究的特点、重要性和可行性 ,指出文学断代史研究既提供了一个认识作家和作品的大框架 ,又能通过切片观察和分析加深对整个文学史的理解 ,具有微观和宏观两方面的视野和优势。但是 ,断代史的研究在我国外国文学界仍是一个有待开发的广阔领域。文章的第二部分以笔者关于 2 0世纪二、三十年代美国文学的新作《美国文学的第二次繁荣》一书为例 ,将撰写这部断代史的选题范围、理性基点、编排设想、讨论方法等 ,做一简要归纳 ,从而强调外国文学断代史研究的价值和意义。

In the first part of the paper, the author discusses the characteristics, the importance and the feasibility of period studies of foreign literatures, pointing out that they offer a spectrum different from both historical perspective of a literature as a whole and studies of individual writers and works. Period study, also an area study, is a convergence of the two, providing a framework for author and text studies as well as reinforcement for a deeper understanding of the whole literature of a nation, and thus enjoying the advantages of both micro and macro vantage points. Yet period study of foreign literatures is still a field to be fully explored in China. In the second part of the paper, the author attempts to discuss briefly, using the newly published period study of American literature of the 1920s and 1930s The High Tide of American Literature as an example, its scope definition, theoretical basis, layout and methodology, in the hope that such discussion would give more notice to the value and significance of period studies of foreign literatures.