从文学的介入之用到文学的无用之用:试论巴塔耶的文学观

From Commitment to Uselessness:On Georges Bataille’s Concept of Literature

本文试图通过比对萨特的介入文学观念和巴塔耶与之相对立的文学愿景,探讨巴塔耶独特的文学观。介入文学的核心意义在于文学的介入之用,其三个重要原则分别是文学服务社会,文学承载意义,文学是社会历史的积极推动力。针对萨特的观点,巴塔耶提出了文学无用的思想:文学是至尊的耗费行为,文学呈现世界的未知,文学的核心是无用的否定性。这种思考体现了巴塔耶对文学现代性传统的继承与反思:文学作为一种反抗社会与历史的否定性力量,呈现出一种无用的特征,但这种无用性并非否定一切,而是在更深的维度中思考人的存在,以求解放主体性,恢复人的主体价值。

This article aims to analyze George Bataille’s concept of literature by comparing it with Jean-Paul Sartre’s opposite view of committed literature. Sartre considers commitment to the world as core of literature, requiring literature to serve society, convey meaning, and advance the progress of society and history. In response to Sartre’s view, Bataille argues that literature is useless. He recognizes literature as a sovereign activity of expenditure and argues that it should only present the unknown of the world, which sheds light on unemployed negativity as the core of literature. In this sense, Bataille’s concept is a reflection on modernity. Literature, as a resistant and negative force against society and history, shows a characteristic of uselessness. Yet, this uselessness is not a negation of everything. In contrast, it is a way to contemplate human existence at a more profound level, in order to liberate human subjectivity from alienation.