何谓“癫狂”——试论中国古代小说中的颠人故事

Study on the Madness Themes in Chinese Vernacular Fictions

癫狂是众多文学化的疾病中十分特殊的一种。人们常常把超出世俗理性之外的行为目为癫狂——这正是以癫狂为主题的小说的基本出发点。小说中的癫狂常常在叙事语境中获得某种特殊的修辞含义,与其医学含义构成相互关联又相互疏离的复调。

People always define behaviors going beyond secular rationality as madness, which is the main basis of the madness themes in Chinese vernacular fictions. In narrative contexts, madness often gains a specific rhetorical meaning. Together with its medical meaning, they construct an interesting polyphony. Through text analysis, this article separates the two meanings of madness, thus concluding its history of ideas in Chinese vernacular fictions.