“文学终结论”的中国之旅

"The End of Literature" in China

耶鲁解构学派的代表人物希利斯·米勒在中国提出了在电信技术时代传统意义上的"文学"将不复存在的观点。中国学者将其概括为"文学终结论",并展开了热烈讨论和争鸣,其中存在一定的误读和误解。实际上,米勒所谓"终结"了的"文学"主要是指印刷时代的独特产物,具有一系列历史和技术条件,它在新的电信时代中必然发生新变和转型,作为学科的文学研究也会随之改变。同时,米勒仍然坚持和尊重文学作品特有的"施为"和"修辞"特性,并将此作为文学研究的重要内容,这意味着米勒并不是真正宣判文学的"死亡"。米勒"文学终结论"的中国旅行,即它的被理解和被误读,有着当代中国特殊的文化学术语境,体现了新世纪开端中国学界在图像与视觉文化、日常生活审美化、文化研究和全球化潮流的冲击下,对文学和文艺学学科未来发展、转型和边界等问题的核心关切与思考。

J.Hillis Miller,argued that the 'literature 'in the traditional sense would not exist with the coming of the era of telecommunications in a paper published in China.This argument had been conceptualized as 'end of literature' by Chinese scholars.And this concept had been misunderstood to a certain extent.In fact,the 'literature 'Miller referred to was the product of print era,conditioned by a series of historical and technological factors,which would have been inevitably changed and transformed in the era of telecommunications.It would bring changes to literary studies as a discipline as well.Nevertheless Miller still insisted on and respected the unique character of 'performative efficacy' and 'rhetoric 'of literary works,which had been regarded as a most important part of literary research.It means that Miller did not intend to declare the 'death' of literature.Our misunderstanding of Miller was closely related with the context of specific academic culture of contemporary China.It reflects upon a couple of problems of literature research,such as the development,transformation and boundaries of literature,as well as the status of the discipline of literature,under the impact of image and visual culture,the aestheticization of everyday life,cultural studies and the trend of globalization.