《子夜》“主题先行”问题与吴荪甫形象之矛盾

The Contradiction in Midnight between the Argument of Its Theme in Advance and the Figure Wu Sunfu

"主题先行"是20世纪80年代末、90年代初,一些学者贬低《子夜》的重要原由,所依据又大都是茅盾自己后来对于《子夜》主题的阐释。但茅盾在写作《子夜》时,是否真的清晰而明确地预设了这一主题?这一主题与《子夜》的文本实际又是怎样的关系?将两者作对照,会发现并不很吻合,尤其在吴荪甫形象塑造上。茅盾在写作《子夜》时,很可能并未清晰确立他后来所述之"主题",他的写作意图只是如《子夜》初版《后记》中所言"大规模描写中国社会现象"。解读文学作品,更应该从文本实际出发,而不是从作者自述出发。

In late 1980s and early 1990s,some researchers of Midnight by Mao Dun belittle the works because of the ＂theme in advance＂,which was resulted from the statements of Mao Dun about the theme of Midnight years later.However,whether the ＂theme in advance＂ of Midnight was pre-designed by the writer and what was the relationship between the theme and the true text are not clear.In fact,they didn＇t agree with each other closely,especially for the figure of Wu Sunfu.In all probability,Mao Dun did not establish firmly the theme of the novel just like what he stated years later,and his purpose for writing this novel was to describe the phenomenon of China at that time extensively,just like what he said in the postscript of Midnight in the first edition.When studying a literature work,we should base on the true text rather than the author＇s statements.