摘要
作为一种西方思潮,颓废主义在中国语境中一直被打上消极与堕落的负面标签。通过追溯自1930年代至1980年代中国作家的创作实践,王鸿渐提出对中国现当代文学中的"颓废"元素进行重估,不应对其仅仅降格或批判。现代私小说圣手郁达夫将国族伤痛隐置在个人情感与情欲之后,用一种个人颓废的方式来抵抗传统道德准则的桎梏与束缚。而唯美诗人与出版家邵洵美也以表面看起来颓废的浪漫主义特色,通过写作和从事商业出版行业双轨并行的方式来参与启蒙运动。当代作家余华与苏童恰好成为了颓废创作的一体两面。余华坚持暴力美学,但仍然坚信人文主义的复归可以重建社会秩序。而由于对世界环境的不相信,苏童的颓废风格导致人物的失败甚至是毁灭。至于王朔、王小波、尹丽川三位当代作家,他们运用不同的标新立异的"颓废"创作风格来强调个人的独立性。王朔的痞子文学主人公虽然离经叛道,但仍然拥抱互助、尊重与勤勉等传统的道德价值观。而王小波与尹丽川作品中的主人公,却通过打破社会一整套价值体系与逻辑来突出个人性与独特性。与西方颓废主义反抗中产阶层生活方式不同,中国颓废主义的发展脉络中没有反抗精英生活的一环,但是他们依然坚信部分传统道德与价值体系可以与现代启蒙运动相结合,从而走出一条与西方颓废思潮发展完全不同之路。
Chinese decadentism(tuifeizhuyi颓废主义)began to emerge as an artistic,philosophical,and literary phenomenon in the 1930s and continued its development well into the 1940s and eventually found its way into Socialist China.The so-called Chinese decadent intellectuals drew their inspiration from the West,but departed significantly from their western precedents in their literary and social ideals and in their individual creative efforts.Such is the argument in Hongjian Wang s new monograph,Decadence in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture:A Comparative and Literary-Historical Reevaluation,a welcoming book that provides cross-cultural examinations of Chinese and Western decadence and in-depth contextualization of literary and artistic creativity.
