怎样做父亲与如何做儿子——鲁迅《我们现在怎样做父亲》与卡夫卡《致父亲》的比较分析

A Distant Conversation in 1919--A Comparison between Lu Xun's“How do We Play the Role of Father Nowadays”and Franz Kafka's“To My Father”

1919年鲁迅与卡夫卡都在关注一个问题,即父子关系问题。1919年10月,鲁迅写了《我们现在怎样做父亲》;同年11月,远在欧洲奥匈帝国的卡夫卡写了那封著名的长信《致父亲》。如果将鲁迅与卡夫卡的观点和论述进行比较分析,便像是一场蕴含着中西文化不同特质的隔空对话。鲁迅的文章不啻是一篇批判封建伦常的檄文;卡夫卡所写的不过是一篇希望父子和解的家书。鲁迅更关注如何做父亲,卡夫卡则更关注怎样做儿子。鲁迅的文章立论明晰,尽管含义丰富、意蕴无穷;卡夫卡的家书表意含混,观点游移,作者的意图难以捕捉和把握。鲁迅与卡夫卡都是值得我们“久久凝视”的作家,是属于同一时代且“可做同解”的作家。

Lu Xun and Franz Kafka were both concerned with the relationship between fathers and sons in 1919.Lu Xun wrote one article titled“How do We Play the Role of Father Nowadays”in October 1919.Kafka,who was far away in Austro-Hungarian empire in Europe,wrote his famous letter“To My Father”in the November of the same year.By comparing and analyzing Lu Xun's and Kafka's views and discourses,it seems to be a dialogue between the different qualities of Chinese and Western cultures.Lu Xun's article is no less than a diatribe criticizing feudalism,while Kafka's is merely a family letter aspiring for reconciliation between father and son.Lu Xun is more concerned with how to be a father,while Kafka is more concerned with how to be a son.Lu Xun's essay is clear in its thesis,though rich in meaning and infinite in its implications;Kafka's letter is ambiguous in its meaning and wandering in its viewpoints,and the author's intentions are difficult to capture and grasp.Lu Xun and Kafka are both writers worthy of our“long gaze”,who belong to the same era and“can be interpreted in parallel”.