追寻“批评”的意义——评《20世纪非裔美国文学批评研究》

Searching for the Meaning of “Criticism”:A Review of A Study of the 20^(th)-Century African American Literary Criticism

王玉括教授的《20世纪非裔美国文学批评研究》是近年来我国非裔美国文学研究领域的高质量专著类成果。该著从纷繁复杂的非裔美国文学批评观念和现象中梳理出“艺术还是宣传”之争这条主线,从横向和纵向两个维度对研究对象进行深度挖掘,既考察非裔美国文学与白人文学之间的交集,又关注非裔美国文学批评在新世纪的走向,表现出宏阔的学术视野。该著具有鲜明的本土视角,积极思考非裔美国文学批评对我国文学和学术研究的启示,同时坚持问题导向,力求见前人所未见,言前人所未言。该著的问世标志着我国非裔美国文学批评研究的不断成熟,也对未来的研究起到引领和示范作用。

A Study of the 20^(th)-Century African American Literary Criticism,written by Wang Yukuo,is a high-quality book in the field of Chinese studies of African American literature in recent years.By sorting out the controversy over “Art or Propaganda” as a guiding thread from various critical notions and practices in African American literature,this book probes deeply into its research objects from both horizontal and vertical perspectives.Also,it shows its broad scholarly vision in exploring not only the connections and interactions between the black and white literature,but also the development of African American literary criticism in the 21^(st) century.While deliberating,from a conspicuous Chinese standpoint,on what Chinese literature and Chinese literatry studies may draw from African American literary criticism,the author maintains a question-oriented approach to uncover what no one has noticed so far and say what no one has said before.The publication of the book marks a new phase of the Chinese scholarships on African American literary criticism and plays a leading and exemplary role for future studies.