意象與肌理──由1930年代漢語詩明白／晦澀的論爭談起

Image and Texture: On the Debate over Clarity/Obscurity in Modern Chinese Poetry in the 1930s

1936年以邵洵美與胡適、梁實秋為主進行了一場「明白／晦澀」的詩論爭，而「明白」與「晦澀」的對立，不僅僅是詩本身的問題，更是語言的問題，是如何重新搭建漢語內在的語言形式的問題。本文認為《嘗試集》之後的第二代新詩人，面對初期新詩在講求文法與大眾化效應之下的的淺白簡陋，正嘗試在英語「文法」以及漢語「語序」這兩股拉力之間，透過活軟的「章句」、人化的「肌理」，來生成「詩意象」，並形塑漢語詩的「現代詩形」。

In the 1930s, poets and critics engaged in a debate over the “clarity” and “obscurity” of images in modern Chinese poetry. This debate signaled a transition from an exclusive emphasis on realism and direct representation of ideas, towards an increasing interest in representation of interiority and the subconscious, and relationship between cognition and written expression. This paper examines how writers in the 1930s, influenced by the transition, experimented with word order to create new combinations of images, explored the structure of imagination to develop a new poetic language, and discussed modern forms of poetry in terms of corporeal patterns and textures. These literary experiments offered writers a way to unsettle the conventions in Chinese language, both challenging the ongoing formalization of modern Chinese grammatical rules, as well as rewriting the relationship between the classical literary tradition and the modern poetical writing.