简论文学地理学对现有文学起源论的修正

Amendments to Views Related to Origin of Literature:A Comment on Literary Geography Studies

文学的发生、起源与来源是一个重要的学术问题,也是一个重要的历史问题,对于我们对文学本质的理解、对文学发展的认识以及对文学构成形态的理解,都会产生至关重要的影响。文学产生于"劳动"被认为是馬克思主义的观点,文学发生于"游戏"被认为是古希腊思想家的观点,长期以来少有人提出不同的意见,甚至也少有人怀疑过它的正确性与科学性。然而,我们在研习文学史的过程中,在从事文学地理学研究的过程中,却发现许多文学作品特别是世界上最古老的文学作品,尤其是神话与传说、散文与诗歌,与人类的"劳动"、"游戏"没有什么联系。正是因此,我们才提出文学的发生、起源与来源,与人类早期所生活的地理环境与地域文化有着重要关联的观点,提出文学发生于特定的自然地理环境与人文地理环境的主张,由此而形成各不相同的地方文学与民族文学,由各地方的文学与民族的文学而形成了所谓世界的文学。

The issue about the origin and the initiation of literature is not only essentially academic but also historical, which will help us to have better understanding of literary development, the formation of literature, and the nature of literature. In Marxist literary criticism, literary works are viewed as the product of labor. The ancient Greek philosophers thought that literature is originated from play. These views have long been accepted and no one has ever doubted their correctness and reasonableness. Nevertheless, in the studies of literary history, particularly literary geography, it has been discovered that the oldest literary works, like myths and legends, prose and poetry, do not even have a bit connection with such human activities as labor or play. The occurrence, the origin and the start of literature are fundamentally associated with the geographical environment and the regional culture of early human beings. Literature occurred in specific natural geographical environment and humanistic geographical environment. Consequently, different local literatures and national literatures came into being and gradually developed. From the many national and local literatures, a world literature, ＂Weltliteratur＂ arises.