或然历史的幽灵:《米盐纪》的全球史书写、中国想象和后冷战的文化政治

The Specters of Alternate History:Global History and Post-Cold War Culture in The Years of Rice and Salt

本文以基姆·斯丹利·罗宾森的或然历史小说《米盐纪》为中心,探讨小说关于“地理大发现”和“文明冲突论”的戏拟性叙事以及中国在其中扮演的关键角色,以揭示后冷战时代历史想象的结构性变革。通过对同主题的或然历史、专业史学、通俗历史的互文式对读,本文分析了对“非西方现代性”的想象如何推动了后冷战时代的反欧洲中心话语。借助德里达的视角,本文进一步指出,《米盐纪》中奇异的“转世论”元叙事旨在召唤乌托邦的幽灵,帮助我们想象资本主义现代性之外的历史可能。

Focusing on Kim Stanley Robin son's The Years of Rice and Salt(2002),this essay investigates the role of China in the noveTs playful representations of "New World Discovery" and "Civilizational Clashes",seeking to unveil the structural transformations of post-Cold War historiography.Traci ng the intertextual connections among alternate history fiction,academic historiography,and pseudohistory,this essay explores how non-Western modernity contributes to a post-Cold War discourse on provincializing Europe.Following Derrida,this essay further argues that the novel's uncanny meta-narrative of"reincarnation"invokes a spectral utopia that allows us to envision possible alternatives to capitalist modernity.