海外汉学图像研究管窥——以罗鹏《裸观:关于中国现代性的反思》为中心

A Glimpse into the Iconology of Sinology Overseas,with The Naked Gaze:Reflections on Chinese Modernity by Carlos Rojas at the Centre

本文以“第四代”海外汉学家罗鹏的图像研究专著《裸观:关于中国现代性的反思》为研究对象,通过对这一典型研究案例的分析,讨论图像研究作为具有跨媒介性质的新范式给传统文学、史学研究带来的冲击与生机。在该书引言《漫游的凝视》中,罗鹏通过对照片中慈禧视线这一矛盾点的提问,动用理论的粘合剂与跨学科的能力,勾连起富有想象力的图像解读以及绵密的史料,召唤出了代表中国现代性的庞大视觉体系。但由于整本书的理论框架是从罗鹏对慈禧的研究中派生而出,在缺少富有历史感的对象后,罗鹏的论述变得有失方寸,这或许来自于海外汉学家们“想象中国”的传统。从“第二代”海外汉学家李欧梵的画报研究,再到“第四代”海外汉学家罗鹏的影像研究,我们或许可以由此管窥图像研究的方法及出路,即只有从图像细节中生发问题,通过对不同学科知识的充分调用,以贴合的理论与惊人的想象力,搬动文字史料作为旁证,才能撬动历史的固有叙事,找寻图像研究新的可能。

This paper deals with The Naked Gaze:Reflections on Chinese Modernity,a work on iconology by Carlos Rojas,a fourth-generation sinologist,as an object of study.By way of analyzing this typical research case,the impact and vitality as brought by iconology on traditional literature and historical studies as a new paradigm of trans-media nature will be discussed.In the Introduction to the book,titled,'The Errant Gaze',when Carlos Rojas questions the point of contradiction in relation to the line of vision of Ci Xi in the photograph,he uses the adhesive of theory and the trans-disciplinary ability to induce richly imaginative iconological reading and dense historical material,summoning the huge visual system representative of Chinese modernity.However,as the theoretical frame of the book derives itself from Rojas’study of Ci Xi,his discussion misses the mark as there is a lack of an object rich in history,which may have come from the tradition of imagining China on the part of sinologists overseas.From the study of pictorials by Leo Ou-fan Lee,the second-generation sinologist overseas,to the iconological study by Carlos Rojas,a fourth-generation sinologist overseas,we may be able to glimpse the methods in and ways out of the iconological research,that is,one can only pry open the inherent narrative of history and search for the new possibilities of iconological study by problematizing the iconological pictures,fully transferring the knowledge from different disciplines,and moving worded historical material as circumstantial evidence with matching theory and astonishing imagination.