对立的消解——远读作为方法的“左右逢源”

Dissolving the Binary: On the Balancing Act of “Distant Reading” as a Method

21世纪初,弗兰蔻·莫瑞提的“远读”策略一经提出便引发学界的激烈讨论,掀起一轮使用科学方法进行大规模文学研究的热潮。本文试图考察其潜在的风险、机遇与可能遭遇的挑战,并借此揭橥远读策略对当下人文学科研究所具有的启发意义,尽可能消除围绕这一概念所产生的误解。本文指出,远读策略作为一种全新的阅读模式和研究范式,其“定量”与“定性”并重、“数字”与“人文”兼顾的研究路径引发了世界文学研究领域内一场极具胆识的概念创新与方法革命。

“Distant reading,” put forth by Franco Moretti at the dawn of the twenty-first century, has sparked heated discussions in the international academy, and rekindled an outburst of enthusiasm towards the adoption of scientifc methods in largescale literary study. This essay directs itself toward the debunking of certain misconceptions on this concept, and seeks to examine the potential risks, opportunities and challenges unleashed by distant reading, before exploring its broader signifcance for literary humanities as a whole. This essay points out that distant reading, as both a new mode of reading and indeed a new research paradigm, has given rise as a consequence to conceptual innovation and methodological revolution in studies of world literature, with equal attention to the quantitative and the qualitative, the digital and the humane.