中国遭遇西方理论:一个元批评角度的思考

Chinese Encounters with Western Theories: A Metacommentary

本文就美国《现代语文季刊》"中国遭遇西方理论"英文专辑发表感想,以王宁、张江、朱立元三位中国学者的文章和德汉、米勒及作者本人三位国际学者的回应为案例,围绕中国与世界的学术语境、对西方理论影响的焦虑以及学术的"术"与"道"的问题,作出元批评和思想史(知识谱系学)角度的分析。本文认为,中国现代化历史(尤其是改革开放四十年的历史)事实表明,中国与世界密不可分。在观念上思考普遍与特殊的关系,不应将其视为是二元对立、非此即彼的关系,而是相辅相成的多元决定关系。

This paper, by taking the Special Issue of Chinese Encounters with Western Theories in Modern Language Quarterly as a case study, and by reviewing the essays of three Chinese authors, i.e., Wang Ning, Zhang Jiang, and Zhu Liyuan and the commentaries by Theo D’haen, Hillis Miller, and the author himself, offers a metacommentary of the papers and commentaries with respect to the issues concerning the academic contexts in which the dialogue in this special issue is conducted, Chinese scholars’ anxiety of the influence of Western theories, the problem of "Dao(principles)" and "Shu(methods)". This paper argues that the historical facts of modern China, especially the history of reform and opening up of the last four decades, show that China is inseparable from the world, and that the relationship between universalism and exceptionalism cannot be viewed as binary oppositions and mutual exclusions. Rather, it is overdetermined by multiple factors of integration and complementarity.