文明仿制与自治恐惧——卡夫卡两部作品中的认知批判

On Cognitive Criticism of Kafka’s Two Works

西方历史中有关动物的话语在19和20世纪之交发生了重要转向。现代生物学理论与生命哲学思潮的诞生颠覆了人与动物间固有的绝对差异论,同时,对两者"同质性"的思考也不断涌现。现代主义代表作家卡夫卡创作了大量人与动物的"混合形象"。它们打破了西方惯常的话语逻辑体系,并在一种回归原始的陌生化视角中反观及反思人类文明的现状。卡夫卡在《一份致某科学院的报告》与《地洞》这两部中篇小说中,塑造了两个成长方向完全相反的角色。它们分别代表了人类进化史中的两个阶段,即理性的启蒙以及理性中心主义的极端化,而这正折射出20世纪初西方社会对现代文明与人类发展的认知状态。

Discourse of animals in Western history underwent a significant transformation at the turn of the 19 th and 20 th centuries. With the emergence of modern biological theories and life philosophy, the absolute differences inherent between humans and animals were subverted. Meanwhile, their homogeneity was constantly investigated. Franz Kafka, a representative writer of modernism, has created a large number of mixed images of human beings and animals. They break the conventional logical system of discourse in the West, and refect on the current situation of human civilization from the perspective of returning to the primitive age. In A Report to an Academy and The Burrow, two chapters growing up in opposite directions are created by Kafka. They respectively represent two stages of the history of human evolution, i.e., enlightenment, and extremity of rationality, which shows the cognitive status of modern civilization and human development in the West in the early 20 th century.