一场注定失败的突围——张爱玲小说《传奇》中关于现代性难产的寓言

A Breakout Doomed to Fail——The Fable About the Cease of Modernity in Eileen Chang's Romance

张爱玲的《传奇》世界以半殖民地和半传统的中国社会为历史背景,主要由遗老遗少和城市小资产阶级构成,其中的相当多数人物已经受到新思想的熏染,思想观念和生活方式也具有了一定的现代性。但传统世界及其伦理观在走向崩溃的同时仍然保有强大的影响,从而阻碍了新的价值观的建构,这一点投射到《传奇》世界中,使得其中各色人物对现代性的追求不得不停留在表层。虽或有大胆者试图冲破藩篱者,但在社会的重压下仍以失败告终。《传奇》中的故事显示,旧的观念和习俗仍然是支配社会的真正精神内核,近代中国的"理性化"和"现代化"之路道阻且跻。

Eileen Chang＇s Romance set the semi-feudal and semi-colonial Chinese society as the background and was mainly peopled by urban bourgeoisie. In this collection of short stories, most members of the urban bourgeoisie had been influenced by western thought, so their ways of thinking and life approached ＂modern＂. However when the traditional thoughts went to collapse the old ethics and rules still had strong influences and hindered the construction of new values. So the characters in Romance had to stop before the superficial modernity. Some other brave figures tried to break away from the limitations of tradition to realize the deeper modernity but failed in the end under great pressure. These short stories show old customs and thoughts to be the true spiritual core dominating the society, and the road to rationality and modernization of modern China is blocked and narrowed.