“民族的文学”与“世界的文学”——论茅盾现代文学观的前瞻性

National Literature and World Literature:The Prospective Vision of Mao Dun's Modern Literature View

在中国文学向现代转型的激变期"五四",茅盾的现代文学观极为丰富又具有前瞻性。近30年对其研究达到相当高的学术层次,但是对他提出的"民族的文学"与"世界的文学"两个范畴及其相互关系的探究却显不足。早在19世纪20年代歌德提出了"民族文学"与"世界文学"两个概念,随后马克思、恩格斯在《共产党宣言》中提出"世界的文学"设想;逮及20世纪中国五四文学革命勃发,首倡建构"民族的文学"(即国民文学)与"世界的文学"的茅盾,既对民族文学与世界文学及其相互关系作了精辟论述,又对先创造国民文学再联合各国建设世界文学的缘由给出充分阐明,也对现代中国民族文学必具的美学特征作出了科学的预测。茅盾的现代文学观不仅具有原创的理论价值,而且它的前瞻性也具有当下的现实意义,对于解决新世纪以来文学创作繁荣背后的"乱象"大有裨益。

In the M ay Fourth M ovement,w hich has seen a dramatic transformation of Chinese literature tow ard modernization,M ao Dun's view of literature has been very rich and forw ard-looking. The study on M ao has made achievements academically in recent three decades,but his tw o concepts of 'national literature'and'w orld literature'as w ell as their relationship,somehow,have been overlooked in a sense. The use of the tw o concepts can be traced back to the 1820's w hen Goethe first started to use them and later M arx and Engels put forw ard the idea of w orld literature in The Communist M anifesto. Since the M ay Fourth M ovement in the early 20 th century,M ao,the first Chinese to advocate for 'national literature'and 'w orld literature',had not only presented a brilliant exposition on the relations of the tw o concepts but also adequately explained w hy national literature is served as the basis of w orld literature and thus should be built first,and had made a scientific prediction on essential aesthetic characteristics that national literature should have. M ao's modern literature view is of great original theoretical value. Being far-sighted,his ideas even have great implications for understanding the 'chaos'of literary prosperity in the 21 st century.