文化异变与知识分子生存状态的大寓言——重评贾平凹长篇小说《废都》

Jia Pingwa's The Abandoned Capital Reinterpreted

《废都》是特定历史语境下知识分子生存状态的大寓言,是一部世纪末的心灵史。作者描写了特定的历史转型期,西京古都这一象征性、隐喻性社会环境里,人文知识分子找不到精神出路、理想家园破灭,普遍萌生的一种颓废、浮躁的生存心态。"废都文化心态"主要从文化的异变与人生的颓废两个层面体现出来。生命的价值不是创造与奋进,而是在文化、知识、声名、荣誉等彩衫遮掩下的沉沦与消费。《废都》昭示了一种批判现实主义的文学精神,体现出贾平凹宝贵的创作勇气与胆识,却不能据此而将它视作一部世纪之交的文学巨著。作者有意布设一个"大寓言",却不甚看重文体艺术的突破,导致《废都》缺乏一种创造性思维。从风格、手法、情节、人物、语言等方面看,《废都》都体现出摹仿《金瓶梅》等古典小说的痕迹。《废都》的创作成为一种复杂的文化现象,呈现为文本艺术的浮躁与思想意义的严肃、深刻之间的二律背反。

The Abandoned Capital,a fable of intellectuals＇ survival state in the specific historical context,is a history of the soul at the end of the century. In the novel,the author pictures the decadent and flippant mentality common to intellectuals suffering from their failure to find a spiritual outlet as well as from their disillusionment of the ideal home in the symbolic and metaphorical social context of Xijing—an ancient capital—during the specific historical transition. ＂The cultural mentality of the abandoned capital＂is embodied in two aspects—the alienation of culture and the decadence of life,for the value of life does not lie in creation and advancement but in degradation and consumption gorgeously covered by culture,knowledge,reputation and honor. Despite its display of the literary spirit of critical realism and its reflection of Jia Pingwa＇s valued courage and audacity in literary creation,The Abandoned Capital can not be considered a monumental literary work at the turn of the century,for the novel is short of a kind of creative thinking in that little attention is paid to breakthroughs in style even if efforts have been made to set up a ＂grand fable＂. As regards the style,technique,plot,characters,and language,traces of imitation of classical fiction like The Golden Lotus by The Abandoned Capital can be discerned. In short,the creation of The Abandoned Capital has become a complex cultural phenomenon,presenting the antinomy between the flippancy of its textual art and the seriousness and profundity of its ideological significance.