契诃夫对19世纪末期俄国市民阶层的批判

Chekhov’s Criticism of the Russian Civil Class in the Late 19th Century

学界对契诃夫小说中的“小市民习气”与现代性体验的研究并未能很好地结合起来。前者往往被搁置于道德批判层面,后者则将关注点放在其对资本主义现代化各要素的文学表现上。实际上契诃夫穷一生之力创作刻画的“市民阶层”众生相和随之表现出来的“契诃夫情绪”与“媚俗”,正是他最突出的现代性体验。通过契诃夫对现代性重要面相之一——市民阶层——的精准描摹,我们看到了俄国现代化发展除农民问题之外的另一个短板:平庸、懦弱的市民阶层无力演变为具有革命精神的市民社会。这也是俄国无产阶级取代短命的资产阶级取得革命最终胜利的重要原因之一。

The academic research has not yet combined the “petty citizen habits” in Chekhov’s novels with the experience of modernity very well. The former is often talked about at the level of moral criticism, while the latter focuses on its literary expression of various elements of capitalist modernization. In fact, Chekhov’s most prominent experience of modernity is the creation and depiction of the “citizen class” and the subsequent “Chekhov emotion” and “Kitsch”. Through an accurate grasp of the mediocre spirit of the Russian citizen class, Chekhov shows an important aspect of Russia’s abnormal Modernity to readers: the citizen class’ s inability of evolving into a civil society. The smell of stagnant water in Chekhov’s works is a warning to another aspect of the post-modernity—the revolution of the lower class.