沈从文湘西小说中的地缘道德景观

The Geomoral Landscape in Shen Congwen's West Hunan Fiction

沈从文湘西小说整体上呈现出一道建立在区域文化历史演变和作者文学虚构双重基础之上的地缘道德景观。在这个宏大叙事结构内,地貌变化和文化、道德面貌变化存在着系统对应:从西部高山的苗族部落文化到河谷丘陵地带的汉苗混合文化,再到沅江下游的汉族儒家封建文化,随着地势的递减,社会道德相应堕落。湘西小说所描绘的汉苗对照、城乡对立受此总体格局的影响。纵向看,湘西小说继承发扬了中国悠久的地缘思维传统;横向看,沈从文作品同20世纪初兴起的西方现代主义遥相呼应,显示出同五四新文学主流迥异的文学趣味和品格。总体上,湘西小说表现出共时性或历史空间化、多元杂糅性、包容性和延展性、单篇作品相对独立性和各篇章之间的关联互动性、传统性,以及包括现代主义的现代性等特点。湘西小说还带有鲜明的地缘文化政治的色彩,是沈从文建构个人文化身份的重要方式。

Shen Conwen's fiction as a whole presents a geomoral landscape built on the dual basis of the historical evolution of regional culture and the author's literary fictionalization.Within this metanarrative,systematic correspondence exists between topographical variations and cultural and moral changes:from tribal Miao culture up in the mountains in the west,to Han-Miao hybrid culture found in the hills and valleys,to Confucian feudal culture in the lower reaches of the Yuanjiang River valley occupied by the Han people,as elevation decreases,morality declines accordingly.Shen's contrast of Han and Miao cultures and the dichotomy he creates between the city and the countryside are shaped by this o verall structure.Diachronically,West Hunan fiction inherits and regenerates the ancient geogenic tradition.Synchronically,Shen's work parallels Modernism in the West in the early 20th century and exhibits a literary taste and character markedly different from those of the mainstream of the New Literature of the May Fourth era.Overall,West Hunan fiction is characterized by the following features:synchronicity or spatialization of history,heterogeneity,inclusivity and extendibility,relative independence of individual works and interactions among various works,traditionality,and modernity (inclusive of modernism).Possessing unmistakable flavors of the geopolitics of regional culture,West Hunan fiction is also an important means by which Shen constructs his cultural identity.