沈从文的文体困境——从新近发现的长篇残稿《来的是谁?》谈起

The Stylistic Paradox of Shen Congwen’s Fiction——From a recently discovered fragment of Who Is the Newcomer

沈从文在新中国成立以后辍文学而治文物,常被视为政治环境压抑作家创作自由的典型个例。实际上,《边城》已经耗尽了作者的"牧歌"曲谱,沈从文已面临"抽象的抒情"的困难。由于社会的动乱纷杂,再加之沈从文身份由"乡下人"到"土绅士"的转变,他已经难以保持明澈恬淡的心境来建构湘西的"人性小庙"。《长河》的未竟,除了国民党书刊审查制度的外因,"牧歌"文体和"史诗"文体之间的冲突,应该是其断章难以为继的主要原因。这种冲突一直持续到1971年沈从文"地下"写作长篇章回体小说《来的是谁?》。这篇有意避开主流意识形态影响的"家族史兼地方史",也以只完成楔子而告终。从新近发现的长篇残稿《来的是谁?》,追溯沈从文《边城》以后的创作,发现沈从文《边城》之后,一直纠缠在文体僭越的困惑之中。在20世纪60年代关于张兆和堂兄张鼎和的长篇革命历史小说搁浅以后,沈从文觉得自己难以完成从"牧歌"到"史诗"的转变,而这一时期他的文物研究影响却逐渐扩大,他最终把文物研究当成后半生的职业。因而沈从文在新中国成立以后辍文学而治文物,并不是斩钉截铁式的突然完成,这个艰难的转向过程,一直持续到1971年写《来的是谁?》。

After the founding of the New China, Shen Congwen gave up fictional writing and turned to the study of antiquities. Hence, he was often considered to be a typical case of free writers who had suffered the repression of political environment. In fact, when he finished his novel The Remote City, the writer＇s pastoral melody had come to an end; as a result, he was confronted with the paradox of socalled ＂abstract lyricism＂. Due to the social turmoil and the transformation of identity from an ahoriginal countryman to a rural gentleman, it was difficult for him to maintain peace and tranquility in heart while constructing his little humanist temple. The conflict between the pastoral style and the epic style was the main reason for the ineompletion of his another novel The Long River except for the strict censorship of the KMT. This conflict had remained when he was composing his ＂underground＂ writing Who Is the Newcomer？ in 1971. Therefore, only the prologue was completed of the novel which was intended to avoid the mainstream ideology of ＂family saga and local history＂. Based on newly discovered unfinisbed long fragments of Who is the Newcomer？, and tracing back to his other writings since his novel The Remote City, the article discovers that Shen Congwen had been entangled in the arrogation of style. After the failure of Zhang Dinghe＇ s （who is Zhang Zhaohe＇ s cousin） experiment with composing a revolutionary history novel in the 1960s, Shen Congwen realized that it was difficult to accomplish the shift from the pastoral style to the epic style. At this period, his study of antiquities had an increasing influence on the academic circle, which eventually led to his devotion of later academic life to this field. In short, Shen Congwen＇ s shift of focus from literature to cultural relic is not a sudden accomplishment but a hard longlasting process, which was unfinished even with the writing of Who Is the Newcomer？.