被压抑的现代性——晚清小说《催醒术》解读

Repressed Modernity:A Reading of Hypnotism

晚清小说《催醒术》在学界既有阐释中通常以鲁迅创作的《狂人日记》为重要参照系,这种“比较”的研究方法实际制造了无形的压抑机制,限制了评论家对这部晚清作品的全面解读与评价,致使其包孕的现代性意义一直隐而未彰或彰而未尽。本文将《催醒术》更多地视为一个独立自主的艺术主体,从创作动因、主题思想、历史语境等几个层面对其进行全方位阐释,试图摆脱长期负载于其身的“比较”阴影。

Hypnotism,a novel of the late-Qing Dynasty,is usually read with reference to Lu Xun’s“A Madman’s Diary”.This comparative research method actually becomes an invisible suppression,which hinders the comprehensive interpretation and evaluation of this work and leaves the significance of its modernity unclarified.This paper regards Hypnotism as an independent and self-sufficient artistic subject and does a comprehensive analysis of its creative motivation,theme and historical context,in order to free it from the comparison it has suffered for a long time.