20世紀初中國文學現代性的曖昧面貌

The Obscure Face of Modernity in Early 20th-Century Chinese Literature

中國現代性在更加激進意義上的不完整,歸咎於它所處的複雜的歷史大背景,尤其是現代性在文學中的運用,由此衍生的多聲複義造成其繁複多義、含混使用的狀況。我這篇文章將要探討學界之於現代性、現代主義等概念的論述所存在的偏頗與局限。中國現代性的發生,應當區分以晚清、民初、'五四'三種模式,現代性與現代主義的融匯根本上源於現代性概念中所藴含的基本矛盾。現代性應當突出獨創性,所表現出的最爲突出的特徵體現在無需借鑒任何其他的標準和既成的範式,而是從自身出發創造一套新的標準和系統。

The obscure face of modernity in China begins with the fact that the project in that discourse is incomplete in a much more radical sense,in that its historical siting,key definitions,and ultimate implications,which all remain in many important ways quite up in the air. This paper outlines various limitations inhering in notions of modernity and modernism in China. For early 20 th century Chinese literature,there would thus seem to be a late Qing modern,an early Republican modern and a 'May Fourth'modern,each with its distinctive features. For a variety of reasons,the early Republican version,as I hope to show,seems to offer the most interesting innovations,perhaps the most important single feature of modernity,and something that fits comfortably with either interpretation of its essential nature. Modernity in essence,needs no longer borrow the criteria by which it takes its orientation from the models supplied by another epoch;it has to create its normativity out of itself.