意识书写:文学中主体性的建构和解构

Consciousness Writing: Constructing and Deconstructing Subjectivity in Literature

在“情感研究”与“认知研究”如火如荼的当下,“意识与文学”问题有待专门的考察。“意识”与“情感”“认知”有所交叉却也不尽相同,在包括“认知”指向的大脑信息处理能力与“情感”指向的原初身体感受及被历史现实命名的情绪体验的同时,“意识”更强调与“自我”无法分割的“觉知”过程。“觉知”过程与人的主体性构建息息相关,因此相较于“情感”或“认知”,关键词“意识”能更清晰地描述人之主体性如何生成与运作。但是停留于哲学或科学领域的意识研究始终难以克服意识的“困难问题”,即意识永远是主观的,个体第一人称视角的经验永远难以被外在于其自身的他者真正体认。文学文本为回应意识的困难问题提供了契机,将意识哲学与神经科学的视角同文学文本分析相结合,可以发现文学文本凭借叙事的灵活性,突破了第一人称主观视角的限制,予以了读者自由探索意识运作模式及其主体性塑造功能的空间。叙事语言的结构形式特征不仅能呈现意识的运作方式,更能对意识产生反作用,服务于主体性的建构或解构。文学与意识的互动为理解主体性及其背后的历史世界提供了一条别样路径,文学叙事之于回答意识问题的巨大潜力有待在未来进行更全面深入的挖掘。

In today's literary studies, “affective studies” and “cognitive studies” have received much attention, but the issue of “consciousness and literature” has yet to be specifically examined. The concept of consciousness concerns the ideas of cognition, bodily feelings, and emotional experiences. More importantly, it emphasizes the process of “awareness”, which is closely intertwined with the construction of subjectivity. Therefore, compared to the terms “emotion” or “cognition”, the keyword “consciousness” describes more clearly how human subjectivity is generated and implemented. However, the study of consciousness that remains in the field of philosophy or science can hardly overcome “the hard problem” of consciousness, that is, consciousness is always subjective, and the experience of one's first-person perspective can never be fully understood by others. Combining the philosophy of consciousness and neuroscience with the analysis of literary texts, it can be found that literary texts provide an opportunity to respond to “the hard problem” of consciousness. As narratives are flexible, they break through the limitations of the first-person subjective perspective of consciousness and allow readers to explore how consciousness operates and shapes subjectivity. Further, narratives have a counter-effect on consciousness, serving as the construction or deconstruction of subjectivity. In conclusion, the interaction between narratives and consciousness offers an alternative to understanding subjectivity and the historical world behind it. The great potential of narratives to answer questions about consciousness needs to be discussed further.