承袭与启蒙:论中国现代小说发端语境下的五四小说实践

Inheritance and Enlightenment:On “May 4th” Novel Writing in the Inception Context of Modern Chinese Novels

五四小说发生于中西交汇、破旧立新的时代转折历史背景下,历史语境中的五四小说家们肩负着解决近代以来中国民族精神衰微与中国传统文化落后的时代责任与使命,其小说实践在契合社会时代变革诉求与"人的觉醒"的时代脉搏中,既承袭小说民间私语特质与中国读者大众阅读心理习惯,又突破传统小说观念、叙事方式等藩篱,在改变中国小说固有形态中完成现代小说启蒙使命,从而正式开创了延续至今的中国现代小说。

'May 4th' novels came about at a time when Western ideas were extensively introduced into China and the country was at the historical turning point of a metamorphosis.Upon the shoulders of the contemporary novelists were the mission of fighting against the spiritual waning of the nation and the backwardness of its culture.In their works,they conveyed the general appeal for reform and the trending plea for'human awakening'.So their novels managed to keep their audience by following their reading habits and retaining the private whisper traits of a conventional novel and succeeded in breaking through their outdated notion of storytelling and its limits of narration.The Chinese novel transformed itself while serving as a means of enlightenment,which was the birth of modern Chinese novel that continues to the present.