再造“传统”:现代中国的母职话语与母亲形象

Reinventing"Tradition":Discourse of Motherhood and the Image of Mothers in Modern China

在日常语境中,怀着无私的爱含辛茹苦地将儿女抚养长大的母亲通常被视为一种传统的形象,然而此种传统母亲形象实际上成形于20世纪二三十年代与现代母亲的复杂互动之中。儒家宗法制家族伦理推崇的“父权母亲”以“寡”和“教”为主要特征。晚清以来在科学话语和情感型家庭伦理的主导之下,对儿童抚养和教育以及家务劳动的事必亲进入母职范畴,“主妇母亲”成为理想典范。然而,“主妇母亲”与“新女性”“新家庭”在事实和叙事层面均构成矛盾,影片《神女》将“新”“旧”置于“神女”一身,小说《寒夜》则设置了“新”“旧”两位母亲互为映衬。最终怀瑞着“爱”又付出“苦”的理想母亲在新旧交织的家庭叙事之中成为“传统”的想象。

In everyday contexts,the mother's traditional image is one who overcomes hardship to raise her children with altruistic love.This traditional image emerged actually from a process of complex interactions with notions of"modern mothers"in the 1920s and 1930s.The"patriarchal mothering"promoted by the Confucian patriarchal family ethics was mainly characterized by"lone parenting"and""child education".Since the late Qing Dynasty,under the influences of scientific discourses and the"ethics of the family shaped by emotional conditions",the"housewife mother"became an ideal model for motherhood,as she was responsible for child rearing and edu-cation as well as household chores.However,this model contradicted the rising notions of a"New Woman"and the"New Family"in both reality and narratives.Signalizing the contradictions,the movie,The Goddess,placed both the""new"and the"old"mother in one body of"The Goddess",while the novel Cold Night set up two mothers in contradiction.In the end,the ideal mother with"love"and"suffering"became the"traditional"imagination in interaction with the"New Woman".