面对形成中的支配性文化及其生产方式——“理论之后”的当代中国文化批评

Responding to the Formation of Dominant Culture and its Production Mode: Contemporary Chinese Cultural Criticism in the Era of After-Theory

"理论之后"作为一种理论背景,并非中国文化批评走向困境的标志,而是真正走向"文化自觉"的象征。"理论之后",西方文化理论并非毫无建树,而是正在发生转型;中国的文化批评实践需要重新确立本土性的研究对象、问题意识和研究方法,应在这林林总总的文化现象、思潮、冲突与激荡中形成对当代中国文化发展特征的某种认识,或者更准确地说,应致力于"形成中的支配性文化"的参与性研究,"主流大众文化"可以成为对之的一种命名;在这一以媒介技术、商品消费为取向的文化生产大潮中,处于支配性地位的便不再只是纯文学、高雅艺术和精英文化了,而是由权力、资本、技术以及相应的文化趣味相交织而形成的通俗文化、大众文化以及相应的文化产业形态。文化批评需要在文化产业领域进行强有力的批判性质疑和建设性参与,从而真正介入并影响支配性文化的形成。

In the era of what Terry Eagleton terms as ＂After - Theory,＂ cultural criticism practice in China needs to re - problematize its research, redefine its object with a focus on the local culture and sharpen its research methodology in response to current theoretical transformations so as to delineate some traits in the development of contemporary cultural development out of various cultural phenomena, currents and conflicts. The paper claims that the cultural criticism should engage in participatory research of ＂the dominant culture in formation,＂ and that this dominant euhure can be named as ＂mainstream mass culture. ＂ The current dominant cultural production mode is increasingly oriented toward media technology and consumption, with the dominance of pure literature, high - brow arts and elite culture on the wane, and it is a state of cultural industry infused with power, capital, technology and the resultant cultural tastes. Chinese contemporary cultural criticism needs to invest in more critical question and constructive participation to intervene the formation of the dominant culture.