媒体生态与中国散文的现代转型

The Media Environment and the Modern Transformation of Chinese Prose

为报刊写作,是晚清至五四时期散文最显著而重要的特点。以报刊为媒介载体的散文,其新的写作方式和传播方式,外在地影响着散文的体式、语言和风格。同时,媒体的价值取向又规定或部分规定了散文的主题设置。民族国家想象中的媒体与散文现代性之间具有某种内在的关联,以报刊建构民族国家想象的共同体,是晚清至"五四"的主流媒体为中国现代性建设所作出的特殊贡献,而媒体散文是联结报人志怀、报刊功能和民族国家建构的关键词。《时务报》等媒体,生成了其时以"维新"、"新民"为宗旨的论说体散文。五四新文化时期,散文的主题由"新民"置换成"立人",散文语言由文白合体转化为现代白话,散文体式由论议体的一枝独秀变为杂文与美文的双流并呈。五四时期的许多散文作家,既是现代散文理论又是现代散文创作自觉的主体。理论与创作的有机互动,实现了中国散文的现代转型。

Writing for the press was the most significant and important feature of prose writing from the late Qing to the May 4th Movement.The new written style and mode of dissemination,for which the press functioned as medium or vehicle,influenced the form,language and style of prose from the outside.At the same time,the value orientation of the media defined or partially defined the themes of prose.There was a certain inherent association between the media in the imagining of the nation-state on the one hand and the modernity of prose on the other;newspapers and magazines constructed the community of the imagined nation-state.This constituted the mainstream media's special contribution to the construction of Chinese modernity from the late Qing to the May 4th Movement.Prose in the media was a key phrase linking the ambitions of journalists,the functions of the press and the construction of the nation-state.The media,including Chinese Progress(Shiwu Bao),produced arguments and exposition that aimed at'reform 'and the'renewal of the people,' and were highly political.During the New Culture period of the May 4th Movement,the leitmotiv of prose changed from the'renewal of the people 'to the'cultivation of the people';its language changed from being a combination of the written and spoken language to modern vernacular Chinese;and its form changed from the flowering of the argumentative style on its own to the twin achievements of expository and lyrical essays.Manyprose writers during the May 4th Movement were consciously engaged in both the theory and creators of modern prose.The organic interaction between theory and creation achieved the modern transformation of Chinese prose.