全球化语境中的启蒙现代性——18世纪欧洲的东方形象与乌托邦小说的发展

Enlightenment Modernity in the Context of Globalization:The Eastern Images of 18^(th) Century Europe and the Development of Utopian Novels

发源于16世纪的乌托邦小说在18世纪发生了重要转型,欧洲作家纷纷开始想象在东西方文化杂糅基础上形成的理想社会,推动了西方现代性的缔造。乌托邦小说的转型与此时欧洲建构起来的东方形象紧密相关。16至18世纪,东方宗教和哲学思想初步传入欧洲,在东西方关系呈现拉锯状态的背景下,西方人对东方毁誉参半,构建了复合的东方形象。启蒙时期的欧洲作家在想象理想化虚拟社会的时候经常指涉东方宗教中的物质起源思想、东方国家政治制度特点等文化特征,使其与西方思想并置并发生对话关系,即以乌托邦小说为载体探索西方文化在与东方文化的深度接触中实现现代转型的条件和可能性。其中一个重要案例是1710年出版于海牙用法语写成的《雅克·马瑟的航行与历险》,这部作品鲜明地体现了18世纪乌托邦小说的发展,揭示了东方思想在西方现代性建构中的作用。

The utopian novel,which originated in the 16^(th)century,underwent an important transformation in the 18^(th)century.The transformation was closely related to the image of the Orient constructed in early modern Europe at this time:from the 16^(th)to the 18^(th)centuries,Eastern religious and philosophical ideas were initially introduced to Europe and,in the context of broadened Euro-American contact,Westerners had a mixed view of the Orient and constructed a composite image of the Orient.During the Enlightment,European writers often referred to the idea of proto-materialism in Eastern religions,the characteristics of Eastern political systems and other related cultural features when imagining an idealized virtual society,juxtaposing and bringing into dialogue Eastern and Western thought.They used utopian novels as a vehicle for exploring the conditions and possibilities for Western culture to achieve modern transformation in dialogue with global cultures.An important case in point is Voyages et avantures de Jaques Massé,published in French in the Hague in 1710,which distinctly embodies the development of utopian novels in the 18th century and reveals the role of Eastern thought in the construction of Western modernity.