现代小说农民形象差异及其嬗变略论——以茅盾《春蚕》管窥

A Brief Discussion on the Difference and Evolution of Farmers'Images in Mod­ern Novels:A Reading of MAO Dun's The Spring Silkworms

现代作家如鲁迅、茅盾、赵树理等笔下的农民形象各异,从阿Q到老通宝,再到小二黑等经典画像的出现,一条现代小说农民形象嬗变的脉络清晰可见。其中,茅盾短篇《春蚕》是透视现代小说农民形象差异及其嬗变过渡性的关键文本。《春蚕》提供了现代中国可亲可敬的农民形象,这是不同于“五四”乡土文学叙事中落后农民的新文学造型。茅盾对农民形象的刻绘,十分注重挖掘农民身上传统性与现代意识的结合,与鲁迅笔下农民形象大异其趣。但鲁、茅两位作家塑造的农民形象,依然是书斋式知识分子从不同角度书写的他们眼中的农民。到了赵树理,农民才真正以历史的主动参与者、创造者形象出现。现代作家对农民文学形象的艺术探寻及其经验,对于当下中国作家文学创作,仍具某种启示意义。

Modern writers such as LU Xun,MAO Dun,and ZHAO Shuli have created different images of farmers.The projecting of classic farmers’images,such as those of Ah Q’s,Lao Tongbao’s,and Xiao Erhei’s,clearly reflects the evolution in the images of farmers in modern novels.Among them,Mao Dun's short story The Spring Silkworms is a key and transitional text in terms of differences in the images of farmers in modern novels.The Spring Silkworms presents an amiable and respectable image of a farmer in modern China,which is different from the new literary modeling of the farmers in the rural literature of"May Fourth Movement"period.The depiction of MAO Dun's images of farmers focuses on exploring the combination of traditional and modern consciousness of farmers,which differs from the images of farmers in LU Xun's works.However,the images of farmers created by LU and MAO are still the farmers in the eyes of the scholar-style intellectuals,only from different angles.The farmers in ZHAO Shuli’s writings appear as true active participants and creators of history.Modern writers’artistic exploration and experience of farmers’images still have a certain enlightening significance for contemporary Chinese writers’literary creations.