作为“方法”的神话——论中国儿童文学对神话资源的化用与限制

Mythology as a“Method”:On the Utilization and Limitation of Mythology Resources in Chinese Children’s Literature

中国儿童文学的发展得益于童话资源的现代转换,神话资源的价值不止于题材、文体和文类的拓展,还具有资源取径的方法论意义。神话资源楔入儿童文学的现代化,源自两者文体的“家族相似”及新文学的整体推进。依循先类同再界分的逻辑,儿童文学先驱们有效统摄两者的关系,但限于儿童观或神话观的制囿,其化用神话资源时难免陷入“泛化”或“窄化”的窠臼。神话童话化是一种文体互涉的形态,它有效地归并了神话的“述”与“作”传统,在立足于新文学立场的前提下发明了中国儿童文学的现代传统。神话资源的化用有助于扩充儿童文学的意涵,促进其艺术形式的跃升,但这种文体跨界融通需要具备神话“儿童文学化”的条件,否则这种融通会销蚀一方的主体性为代价,进而造成思想资源的浪费。科学理性地转换神话资源的路径是在廓清儿童文学“元概念”的基石上,确立神话与儿童文学“互为主体”的价值标尺并深度介入中国儿童文学“民族性”与“现代性”的人学系统,从而凸显中国儿童文学兼具“儿童性”与“文学性”的学科特性。

The development of Chinese children’s literature benefits from the modern transformation of fairy tale resources. The value of mythological resources is not only the expansion of theme,style and genre,but also the methodological significance of resource selection. The modernization of children’s literature wedged by fairy tale resources stems from the“family similarity”of the two styles and the overall promotion of new literature. According to the logic of“first similarity and then division”,the pioneers of children’s literature effectively controlled the relationship between the two,but limited by the concept of children or mythology,it is inevitable that their utilization of mythological resources will fall into the pattern of “generalization”or “narrowing”. Fairy tale mythology is a form of stylistic interaction,which effectively merges the tradition of “narration”and“writing”of mythology,and invents the modern tradition of Chinese children’s literature on the premise of new literature. The utilization of mythological resources will help to expand the meaning of children’s literature and promote the leap of its artistic form. However,this cross-border integration of literary style needs the condition of “children’s literature”of mythology. Otherwise,this kind of accommodation will be at the expense of eroding one party’s subjectivity,thus causing a waste of ideological resources. The path of scientific and rational transformation of mythological resources is to establish the value scale of “mutual subject”between mythology and children’s literature on the basis of clarifying the“meta concept”of children’s literature,and to deeply involve in the humanistic system of “nationality”and“modernity”of Chinese children’s literature,so as to highlight the disciplinary characteristics of Chinese children’s literature with both “child character”and “literariness”.