西方浪漫主义与五四时期现代自我的生成——以《沉沦》为例

Western Romanticism and the Shaping of the Modern Self in the May Fourth Period:A Symptomatic Reading of Sinking

西方浪漫主义与中国现代自我的生成密切相关。郁达夫的《沉沦》在一定程度上映射了五四一代基于浪漫主义话语的主体构建模式,对《沉沦》做症候式阅读,可辨析这一主体生成的内在机制及隐含的历史疑难。在展开浪漫主义"自我确立"的意识形态主题后,文本随即显示出自我解构的征兆。主人公以西方浪漫主义话语为资源,将个体确立为具有鲜明主体意识的现代自我,但不同于启蒙传统中具有行动力的理性主体,这一现代自我属于感伤式的主体类型。主人公自我确立以压抑历史力量为代价,但历史之力终究撕破文本光滑的表面,凌空蹈虚的主体建构工程也遭遇溃败。作为郁达夫笔下"零余人"的代表,主人公折射了一代知识分子遭遇的历史疑难,这使得作品富于国族寓言的意味。

Western Romanticism functions as an important shaping force in the making of the modern self during the May Fourth Period. Sinking by Yu Dafu, to a certain extent, mirrors the self-conscious efforts of the generation of young intellectuals who strive for self-assertion and self-definition by appropriating roman- tic discourses. A symptomatic reading of the text reveals how it defeats its own ideological project. Unlike the free and rational self nurtured by the Enlightenment tradition, the modern self thus fashioned is senti- mental, introspective and intensely self-conscious and can only exist by repressing the historical. The pro- tagonist＇ s failed efforts at self-definition shed light on the historical predicament of the group of intellectuals who felt disconnected and disorientated in a time of political turmoil and radical changes. Viewed in this light, the text might be read as an example of what Fredric Jameson calls national allegory.