如何“历史” 怎样“小说”——谈谈我的历史小说研究兼及治学有关问题与方法

Historical Conception and Novelization:My Approach to Historical Novels and the Problems and Methods of Scholarship

历史小说研究虽是个人化的学术实践活动,但它在一定程度上也反映了新时期以来当代历史小说批评和研究的总体情景及发展脉络。历史小说研究大体经历了从批评到理论再到综合三个阶段或曰三种研究方式。如何“历史”,怎样“小说”,这是一个相当复杂且人言人殊的问题。回顾和总结过往走过的道路,感受和体会最深的,是需要正视并处理好“创新与规范”“寻找‘根据地’与超越‘根据地’”“批评与研究”三方面关系。这不仅对历史小说,其治学有关问题与方法,对更为宏大的当代文学研究也具有重要的借鉴意义。

Although the research on historical novels is a personal activity of academic practice,it also reflects the whole picture and evolution about the criticism and research on contemporary historical novels.Specifically,the research went through three different phases or ways:criticism,theoretical innovation,and synthetic study.How do we talk about historical topics,and how to novelize them?This is quite a complicated question,and the answer could be various.Looking back of the coming path,my deepest feeling and experience is the importance of facing up and properly handling the relationship between these three aspects:innovation and norms,finding“base”and transcending“base”,criticism and research.It is not only important to the research methods of historical novels,but also of great referential significance to broader study of contemporary literature.