张恨水“爱情三部曲”对传统小说的改造及其局限

The Transformation of Traditional Chinese Novels in Zhang Henshui’s “Love Trilogy” and Its Limitation

张恨水的早期作品典型反映了中国小说由传统向“现代”演进的过程,也由此展现了其中的种种症候。以张恨水早期的“爱情三部曲”为例,作者逐步转变传统章回小说的内容与形式,三部曲叙事重心由个人到家族再扩大到总体性的社会结构图景,主题由个人命运的悲叹到反映社会上层的腐败,再到表达市民阶层朴素的政治正义观,均显现了作者社会视野的逐渐扩张、观念的不断更新与革新旧文学的持续努力;时代转变带来的观念转化使得作品从“守旧”的旧文体逐渐向“革新”后的新文类演进。但既有的保守心态又使得这些作品无法深究矛盾的社会成因,而仍陷于半传统的小说形态。这表明文学形式的现代(化)与叙事内容的现代(性)无法割裂和分离,也对新旧文学的转化和“雅俗之辨”带来新的启示。

Zhang Henshui’s early works reflect the transformation of Chinese fiction from tradition to “modern”, and manifest various symptoms in this process. For example, in Zhang’s “love trilogy”, he gradually moves backwards to the narrative conventions of classical Chinese novels in both form and content. The themes range from the lamentation of personal fate to the reflection of the corruption of the upper class of society, and then to the expression of the simple political justice concept of the citizens, all of which show the gradual expansion of the author’s social vision, his continuous renewal of concepts and consistent efforts to innovate old literature. The conceptual transformation brought about by the change of the times advanced the evolvement of the works from the “conservative” old style to the “renovated” new style. However, the existing conservative mentality hinders these works from probing into the social causes of the contradictions, which retains these works in the form of semi-traditional novels. It shows that the modernization of literary form and the modernity of narrative content are indispensable, which sheds light upon the transformation of old literature and the dispute over refined and popular literature.