英语世界中国文学史写作的评价和反思

Evaluation and Reflection on the Writings of Chinese Literary History in the English-Speaking World

英语世界的中国文学史写作历时120余年,历经四个阶段。早期的中国文学史写作多为配合课堂教学而生,存在体系性弱、主观性强等问题。20世纪60年代,华裔学者开始主导中国文学史写作。此后,随着现代性的理论的引入,“现代性模式”成为主流的写史范式。21世纪以来,文学史写作呈现多元面貌。这些文学史著作取法各异,但集中揭示了文学史写作中普遍存在的主观和客观、典型和一般、引述和表述的对话关系,说明了文学史形态的复杂性。不过这些文学史书写存在理论先行的倾向,尤其是以现代性的理论描述中国文学发展的历程,忽视了对中国文学自身特色与传统的挖掘。同时它们更注重观念的阐发,缺乏对新材料的发掘。

The writings of Chinese literary history in the English-speaking world have lasted for more than 120 years and have gone through four stages.The early writings of Chinese literary history were mostly created to complement classroom teaching,and suffered from problems such as weak systematicity and strong subjectivity.In the 1960s,ethnic Chinese scholars began to dominate the writings.Since then,with the introduction of the theory of modernity,the"modernity model"has become the dominant paradigm for writing history.Since the 2lst century,the writings of literary history have become pluralistic.There is,however,a tendency for these literary histories to be written theoretically first,especially in describing the course of Chinese literary development in terms of theories of modernity,thus neglecting the excavation of Chinese literature's own characteristics and traditions.At the same time,they focus more on the elaboration of concepts than the discovery of new materials.