身历其境：清末民初中国城市与欧洲文学想象(克劳代尔篇)

To Be Personally On the Scene:Chinese Cities and European Literary Imagination(Paul Claudel)

清末民初,一些欧洲文学家来到中国。他们能透过现象追寻中华文化的本质,向往着历史文化积淀的超越意义。更重要的是,作为文学家,他们汲取身历其境的实存经验,写出个人独到而深刻的生活体会,探索异文化给自己带来的心灵冲击,思考文化环境与文学想象的关系,创作出重要的文学作品,影响了后世。这些欧洲作家书写中国经验的过程,涉及了不同文化的交叉渗透。通过作者书写的主观努力,以及本人不能完全意识到的多重文化场域的影响,创作出涉及特定历史真实的艺术想象记录。这样的记录,虽然不能作为完全客观的史料来理解,但也不是天马行空式的文学艺术想象。本文以克劳代尔为例,探讨欧洲文学家亲身观察之细密,以及观察后所创作的文化想象,再与当时中国人自己的地方志和风土历史记录对照,希望可以对清末民初的城市印象及其可提供的文化想象空间,提出一点新的观照方式。

In the late Qing and at the beginning of the Republic China,some European literateurs came to China.They endeavored to find the essence of Chinese culture and desired transcendental significance.More importantly,as literatures,they absorbed their own experiences,wrote very individual thought of life,explored spiritual shock by alien culture,thought about relation between cultural environment and cultural imagination and created important literal works which had great influence.Their writing of China reflected interaction of different culture.Through their subjective efforts and influence of multi-cultural fields which they themselves may not recognize,they made artistic imaginary records related to special historical reality.Such records may neither be regard as totally objective historical materials nor as literal imagination.By taking the example of Paul Claudel,the essay makes an exploration of cultural imagination of European literateurs.And by comparing it with Chinese local chronicles and custom records,the essay tries to provide a new analysis on impression of cities and cultural imagination in the late Qing and at the beginning of the Republic China.