- 弱勢民族文學在現代中國:以東歐文學為中心
- 宋炳輝
- 3287字
- 2019-08-09 18:50:22
中文提要
現代民族主體意識的建立是中國文化和文學現代化的體現,是19世紀后期以降中國現代文學建構區別于古典文學最明顯的文化背景,而中國現代主體正是在百多年來中外文化交匯碰撞中建立起來的。對中國現代主體意識及其經驗的考察,是揭示中國文學現代性復雜內涵的關鍵,而外國文學與文化在中國的譯介,則是中國現代主體文化和文學創造的一種重要途徑,是跨語際文化實踐賴以展開的場域,是中華民族以及關于“現代人”想象建構中一種重要中介。其中弱勢民族文學的譯介實踐和西方強勢民族文學譯介一起,共同構成了中國現代主體的一部分。而東歐文學作為中國現代視域中的“弱勢民族文學”最典型的一部分,無論其內容本身對中國現代文學建構的歷史貢獻,還是在歷史進程中所發揮的歷史文化的特殊功能,尤其是其與歐美西方文學的對照而言,都具有重要的研究價值。本書聚焦于東歐文學在現代中國的譯介及接受影響情形,并在現代中外文學關系的背景下,分析其對于中國文學現代進程所發揮的文化功能。
相對于西方文學的譯介而言,這部分文學譯介的數量雖然不多,但其歷史復雜性并不相應降低。恰恰相反,這部分譯介實踐的過程及其成果,在中國現代主體意識的建構中有著特別的意義,它在現代民族身份的確認、文學情感的表達和文學價值的指歸等方面,都有著特殊的文化功能。對這部分實踐的分析,有助于完整地勾勒中國現代主體意識全貌,特別是有助于揭示被文化中心話語所遮蔽和壓抑的民族主體的內在矛盾和緊張。本書作者認為,只有在這種中外文化交流多元譜系的語境中展開討論,弱勢民族文學譯介的復雜情形才可以得到正視,弱勢民族文學譯介實踐的文化和文學意義也就可能得到合理的說明,它在中國現代語境下往往遭受西方強勢文學壓抑的原因也可以得到進一步的解釋,由此而引起的中國主體意識的相應特點,也可以得到進一步的落實。但漢語學術的基本事實是,在以往的中外文學關系研究中,作為中國現代文學外來因素之一的“弱勢民族文學”的譯介常遭忽視,不是以中西文學關系,就是以中蘇文學關系為主導;在外國文學中譯的研究中,既有的成果也基本囿于單純的外國(國別)文學研究視野。
從中國主體的認知角度而言,“東歐”不僅是一個單純的認知對象,它是中國現代民族意識覺醒的伴生物,它與中國民族主體意識的生成和演變,有著不可分割的聯系。東歐諸國并稱,也不只是一種簡單的指陳行為,同時也表明了中國主體對東歐諸國共同的歷史命運、文化處境和民族性格的認知。東歐作為一種鏡像,同時也折射了中華民族現代化歷史境遇的認識。在百多年的世界歷史中,因為國際關系格局和意識形態等因素,東歐各國與中國之間關系的冷熱親疏、平坦曲折,不僅十分相似,而且往往相互牽連,這種關系狀態,同樣也反映在中國與東歐諸國的文學關系上。因此,居于中國主體立場討論中國與東歐諸國文化和文學的關系,“東歐”不僅是對一種客觀對象物及其固有聯系的認知,在文化價值意義上,更是一種借助他者鏡像對民族主體的自我構成、民族性格的內在特征的審視,是對民族文化的歷史境遇和現代進程的反省,進而是對民族文學的現代轉型及其內部特質,包括對汲取外來文學資源、傳承與再創民族傳統的內涵與方式的辨正與探索。
相同相似的現代化處境和經驗,使東歐文學對現代中國有著特殊的意義。處于歐洲夾縫中的東歐諸國,共同的地緣政治特點對其現代化進程帶來明顯的制約。具體表現為:相對于西歐現代化先發國家而言,其現代化發生的非自主性、現代化模式選擇的限制性、現代化進程的滯后性。特別是第二次大戰后,東歐諸國一度實行的人民民主制度、多黨聯合執政和多元經濟體制。因冷戰時期兩個世界陣營對峙的世界格局,而強制性地被蘇聯模式所替代(高度集中的政治與經濟體制;按重、輕工業,農業順序發展的國民經濟;高速度、高積累、高投資的“三高”方針,以及農業的強制性集體化等)。所有這些在國際外部環境和內部變革方面的發展模式,都與現代中國尤其是20世紀后半期現代中國有著相似的經歷。
正因為中國與東歐文學關系是兩者的意識形態、社會體制、國際關系和各文化層面異同關聯的反映和折射,所以,在東歐與中國文學關系的百年歷史中,政治意識形態理所當然地成為各時期極為重要的制約因素。這種關系包括兩個維度:一是中國與東歐間的直接交流和相互關系;二是中國與東歐雙方與其他國際集團或民族國家的關系中所體現的異同關系。具體說來,就是在20世紀(特別是二戰后)的歷史進程中,雙方在國際關系的各層面——包括文學關系方面——與西歐和俄蘇關系中所體現出來的同向、同構及其差異關系。本書聚焦于在這多重關系網絡中,對中國與東歐文學關系進行多層次分析,進而揭示東歐文學對于現代中國文學的意義。
研究顯示,東歐文學在現代中國的譯介、影響與接受,是中國主體有意識倡導和實踐的結果。它是在民族面臨危機的時代,伴隨現代民族意識的覺醒而出現的,并始終伴隨著濃厚的政治意識形態因素的制約,但它在中國現代文學演進中持續并擴大影響,卻是先鋒知識分子自發自覺的同聲相應、同氣相求的結果。
中國與東歐文學的關系歷史表明,東歐文學在中國的意義凸顯和接受程度,并不與其在中國譯介數量的多少對應。中國與東歐之間的文化交往、文學譯介及其影響接受之間,并不成正比例的對應關系。只有接受主體出于自身文化建構和文學創作的需要,進行有意識的引入(包括翻譯和評價),才有可能對本土文學發生實質性的影響,其作為外來資源才會進入本土文化的創生實踐,熔鑄到民族文學的血液當中。
Abstract
The formation of modern national subject consciousness in the cultural encounter and exchange between China and other countries in more than one hundred years is a sign of the modernization of Chinese culture and literature,and makes one of the most salient cultural backgrounds that distinguishes modern Chinese literature from its classical literature.The study of Chinese modern subject consciousness,therefore,is of primary importance to reveal the complexity of the modernity of Chinese literature.The translation and introduction of foreign literature and culture in China was an important way in which Chinese modern subject culture and literature were created,the field where translingual cultural practice was carried out,and an important medium for Chinese people’s imagination and construction of“modern people”.The translation and introduction of the literature of marginalized nationlities along with that of the developed countries made one integral part of Chinese modern subject.The East-European literature,as the most typical in the literature of marginalized nationalities in Chinese perspective of modernity,deserves our close attention owing to the historical contribution of the literature itself to the construction of Chinese modern literature and its historical and cultural function in the historical process in comparison with European and American literature.This book is devoted to the reception of East-European literature in modern China and its cultural function in the modernization of Chinese literature.
East-European literature translated and introduced in China is much less in number than that of the West,but its historical complexity is not correspondingly less.On the contrary,the process and achievement of the translation and introduction of East-European literature is of special significance for the construction of Chinese modern subject consciousness,and has unique cultural function in the confirmation of modern national identity,the expression of literary emotion,and orientation of literary value in modern China.The study in this field will be of great use to picture the outlines of Chinese modern subject consciousness,and reveal the inner conflict and tension in the national subjects shadowed and suppressed by centrual cultural discourse.The author of this book holds that only in the multifold context of Sino-foreign cultural exchange can the complexity of the translation and introduction of the literature of marginalized nationalities receive deserved attention,can the cultural and literary significance of the translation and introduction of the literature of marginalized nationalities be justly explained,can its suppression by the powerful literature of the West in modern China be reasonably interpreted,and can the corresponding characteristics of Chinese subject consciousness be clarified.In Chinese academia of Sino-foreign literary relations,however,the translation and introduction of the literature of marginalized nationalities as one part of foreign literature in China has been mostly ignored while the focus is mainly on Sino-West or Sino-Soviet literary relations.The existent studies of the translation of foreign literature in China are mainly carried out in the perspective of foreign(national)literary studies.
From the cognitive perspective of Chinese subject,East Europe is not
simply an object of cognition,but a company for the formation of Chinese modern national consciousness,and closely related to the birth and evolution of Chinese national subject consciousness.The joint name for the different countries in East Europe is not simply a reference,but a reflection of China subject’s understanding of historical destiny,cultural circumstance,and national character of the countries of East Europe.East Europe,as a mirror image,also reflects Chinese people’s understanding of its own modern historical circumstance.In the world history of more than one hundred years,East European countries shared very similar destinies with China owing to the international structure and political ideology,which is reflected in Sino-East-European literary relations.Therefore,the studies of Sino-East-European literary relations from Chinese subject perspective is not simply to study East-Europe as an object and its relations to China,but to take East Europe as a mirror image to meditate on the formation and innate characteristics of Chinese subject,the history and modernization of national culture,modern shift of Chinese literature,the borrowing from foreign literature and recreation of national tradition.
Similar historical experience and challenge of modernization endowed East-European literature with special significance for modern China.Marginalized East-European countries faced obvious obstacles in their modernization owing to their shared geopolitical characteristics,such as the lack of autonomy in modernization,limited choices of modernizing models,and lagging behind of their modernization.The people’s democratic system,multi-party government and diversified economy adopted by East-European countries after WWII were forcedly replaced by Soviet models such as highly concentrated political and economical systems,the national economy with an order of heavy industry,light industry and agriculture,the high-speed,high-accumulation and high-investment principle,and the forced collectivization of agriculture.All those international environment and domestic evolution were very similar to that of China in the second half of 20th century.
Political ideology was a most important element in shaping Sino-East-European literary relations,which were the reflection of the similarities and differences in ideology,social system,international relations,and cultures between China and East European countries in more than one hundred years.Sino-East-European literary relations can be studied in two aspects:the direct communication and relations between China and East Europe;the similarities and differences embodied in China’s literary relations to other international groups or nations and East Europe’s literary relations to them.Specifically,in 20th century(especially after WWII),China and East Europe exhibited similarities and differences in their international relations(including literary relations)to West Europe and Russia(Soviet Union).The book focuses on the multilevel network of relations to study Sino-East-European literary relations to reveal the significance of East-European literature for modern Chinese literature.
The study shows that the translation,introduction,influence and reception of East-European literature in modern China is the result of the conscious advocation and practice of Chinese subject.The introduction of East-European literature,carried out when China was facing national crisis and modern China’s national consciousness was coming into being,was constantly controlled by political ideology,while its lasting and expanding influence in the development of Chinese literature was the result of the conscious efforts of Chinese avant-garde intellectuals for the similar purposes.
The history of Sino-East-European literary relations shows that the special significance and reception of East European literature in China are not limited by the number of works translated and introduced in China.The cultural exchange,literary translation and introduction between China and East Europe were not directly proportional to the influence and reception of East European literature in China.Foreign literature will wield substantial influence on the local literature,enter into the original practice of local culture and blend into the blood of the national literature only when consciously introduced and translated by reception subject for its cultural construction and literary creation.