达拉斯·斯迈思在北京:重访西方批判传播理论的中国问题

Dallas Smythe in Beijing:Revisiting the China Question in the Western Critical Communication Theories

中国文化理念与实践是加拿大传播学者达拉斯·斯迈思密切关注的理论命题。斯迈思在毛泽东时代和邓小平时代对中国社会主义文化的两次调研,为其独特的传播理论谱系建构奠定了思想基础。本研究基于对斯迈思档案材料、调研笔记和未刊手稿的文本细读和知识社会学分析,以“达拉斯·斯迈思在北京”为线索,探讨中国问题在西方批判传播理论生成过程中的角色。研究发现,中国社会主义文化和理论的历史性探索,不仅为斯迈思打开了理论视野,也成为其传播思想形成的关键线索,中国问题在其中扮演了从对象到坐标的历史角色,激发了斯迈思在西方批判传播理论内部重新思考文化的政治经济属性议题,促使他发生有别于其他任何同辈学人的“唯物主义”转型;思想形成的历史语境,既包括他两度访华的经历、其本人深陷西方批判传播理论论战的曲折遭遇,也内在于西方批判传播理论的全球互动和理论对话脉络;斯迈思关于中国问题的思考所彰显的激进性,甚至撬动了西方批判传播理论“再度马克思主义化”的进程。本研究突破了“西方思想/中国实践”的二元论叙事,在西方批判传播思想内部讨论中国的历史角色及其理论意义,有助于为打开传播思想史领域的“灰色地带”提供实证支撑。

China’s socialist cultural ideas and practices are kernel in Dallas Smythe’s theoretical genealogy.The Canadian scholar’s two visits to China respectively in Mao Zedong era and Deng Xiaoping era,pave way for the shaping of his unique communication thoughts,which in return highlight the close articulation between the Eastern and Western cultural theories as well as practices.Based on the textual and sociological analysis of Smythe’s archives,notes and his unpublished manuscripts,it argues that “Dallas Smythe in Beijing” is a clue for examining China’s role in the Western critical communication theory context.From his discursive object to analytical coordinate,China’s socialist cultural theories and historical explorations not only broadened Smythe’s theoretical vision,which enabled him to rearticulate the political economy nature of culture while be alienated from his theoretical allies within the Western critical communication narrative,but also shaped the materialistic turn of his critical communication ideas,which were born in the contexts of his two visits to China,his rebuttal against his Western critical communication counterparts,and the reconfiguring discourse of Western critical communication theories in the global settings.The radical China Question even “re-Marxized”the paradigm of Western critical communication theories.This research aims to go beyond the “Western ideas vs.Chinese practices” dichotomy and relocate China’s historical role and its theoretical meanings in the configuration of Western critical communication ideas,thus helps with empirical sources to unveil the “grey zone” in the history of communication ideas.