回归历史——评《哥伦比亚英国小说史》

A Return to History——Reflections on the Columbia History of the British Novel

《哥伦比亚英国小说史》是一部史论兼备的力作,书中40篇互相联系的文章代表了当今英语世界小说研究的一流水准和方法/价值上的新趋向。它所反映的新历史主义和女权主义相结合的批评特点给我们很多启示。近二十年来所谓的“语言学转向”和各种非历史主义的形式批评在我国学界有较大影响,现在有必要强调回归历史。新历史批评所关注的历史不是政治外交史,而是通过各种文字资料和物品来显现的社会/文化史。本文从英国小说的起源、女性小说家的贡献、时代分期以及小说是否面临生存危机等方面讨论这部著作的特点和得失。作者同时指出,小说非但没有死亡,它还是“一部生活的闪光之书”,其寿命甚至会超过上帝。在一个产生了亨利·菲尔丁、简·奥斯丁、乔治·艾略特的国度,小说仍然可能是伦理探究的最佳工具。

The Columbia History of the British Novel consists in an interrelated series of 40 essays by some of the most talented critics of the Anglo-Saxon world. This critical review points out that it represents major reversals in trends among literary scholars and historians. Women＇s contribution to the genesis of the genre in Britain is generously if not overenthusiastically recognized and various kinds of formerly marginalized documents and material artifacts are used in an effort to describe the complexities of a social/cultural as well as literary history. The historical approach as demonstrated in this monumental volume might be instructive to scholars in China, where ＂the linguistic turn＂ and all the formalist （therefore anti-historicist） methodologies have just passed their heyday and a return to history, to the historical dimensions of texts, seems to be timely. Issues like the proper restoration of formerly repressed voices, the validity of general descriptions of ＂periods＂ and the situation of the novel are discussed. It ends in an optimistic note by saying that in a country that has produced Henry Fielding, Jane Austin, George Eliot and Joseph Conrad, the novel is still ＂the one bright book of life＂ and the best available instrument of ethical inquiry.