现代性、文化救赎与批判理论

Modernity, Cultural Salvation and Critical Theory

现代性文化救赎论是最流行的现代性问题的叙说方式之一。早期的批判理论是现代性文化救赎论的积极鼓吹者。但富有讽刺意义的是,早期批判理论的现代性理论的致命伤恰好就是他们的现代性文化救赎观念。因为这种观念使得批判理论把现代性变成了在怀旧情愫中产生的“幻想的文化现代性”,缺乏现代性要求实践自身的行动维度,也缺乏现代性介入日常生活成为一种生活方式的现实维度,更缺乏现代性与传统断裂而永远关注自身、关注当下的无畏勇气。可见,现代性的文化救赎论割裂现代性的存在形态与其文化形态之间的有机联系,既无助于现代性的重建与自我辩护,也无助于现代性的批判与深度反思。

The theory of modernity cultural salvation is one of the most fashionable narratives concerning modernity. The modernity theory in early critical theories advocates modernity cultural salvation. Ironically, however, the most vulnerable point of the modernity theory in early critical theories lies in its conception of modernity cultural salvation, which leads to the critical theory＇s conversion of modernity into the ＂imagined cultural modernity＂ fostered from the sense of nostalgia, which is devoid of both the behavioral dimension of modernity in its demand for self-practice and the realistic dimension of its involvement with daily life and thus becoming a way of life. Furthermore, it lacks the dauntless courage of modernity to break away with tradition in its perpetual indulgence in the self and the present. Thus, the cultural theory of modernity breaks the organic link between its existential form and its cultural form, making it inconducive either to the reconstruction and self-defense of modernity or to critique and in-depth reflection upon modernity.