自传的现代转型探析

On the Modern Transformation of Autobiography

在中国古代,"传"和"记"是彼此独立的两个门类,现代意义上的自传并不存在。自传的出现与启蒙运动密切相关。1898年之后,随着西学东渐的发生,现代个人遭遇到了传统共同体的崩塌。为了重新建立起一套行之有效的现代共同体建制,从而稳固个体的身份认同,新出现的知识分子发现了自传所蕴藏的变革力量,他们纷纷在新的知识框架内对中国自传的历史进行了梳理,意在重塑"新民"的理想人格,完成了自传的现代转型。

In ancient China,＂biography＂ and ＂record＂ were the two entirely different independent linguistic styles and there was no autobiography in its modern sense.The birth of autobiographies was closely related to the Enlightenment.After 1898,with the Eastward movement of the Western learning,the modern individuals had undergone the collapse of the traditional cultural structure.In order to reconstruct an effective modern system of such structure and hence stabilize their identity,the new intellectuals found the innovative power in autobiographies.Accordingly,they studied the Chinese history of autobiographies in an attempt to rebuild the ideal personality of ＂new people＂ and thus they completed the modern transformation of autobiographies.