历史无声却有痕——评魏爱莲教授《美人与书:19世纪中国的女性与小说》

History Leaves no Voice but Wounds: Ellen Widmer's The Beauty and the Book: Women and Fictions in Nineteenth Century China

《美人与书:19世纪中国的女性与小说》首次对中国古代女性与小说的关系做了全面考察,为将"女性"写入小说史和"小说"写入妇女史做了有益的尝试,并将"想象历史"的方法运用得十分精彩。但是,由于这一方法的运用偶有失度,从而导致某些构想无法落到实处。《美人与书:19世纪中国的女性与小说》的未完成状态恰好为我们提供了一个开放式构架,可以激活这一领域的研究不断生长。

The Beauty and the Book： Women and Fictions in Nineteenth Century China,is an outstanding piece that utilizes the technique of imagining history through,for the first time,an attempt to find women in a history of fictions and the role of fictions in writing a women＇s history based on a comprehensive review of the relationship between fictions and women in ancient times. However,due to a misuse of this above technique some imaginations could not be materialized. This incomplete state of The Beauty and the Book： Women and Fictions in Nineteenth Century China,has left an open space for us to grow our research in this area.