空間、身分與公共再現：清末民初（1840-1919）女作者小說的「移動性」

Space, Identity and Public Re-presentation: The “Mobility” of Late Qing and Early Republican (1840-1919) Women Writers

清末女權思潮乍興，女子開始走出閨閣，拓展更寬廣的行動幅圍，擁有新的發展空間，同時也繼續受制於深重的父權社會傳統。小說原屬於傳統文學版圖的邊緣文類，於清末民初時期躍居文學主流。女作者原居於文壇的邊緣位置，也在清末民初時期逐漸向文壇中心移動。清末民初，逐漸增多的女作者躍上文壇，藉小說發出婦女的聲音。當女作者的寫作文類，從傳統的詩、詞、文、賦，發展為具有通俗色彩的小說，這種移動所帶來的，不僅是寫作文類的不同、作家身分的多元，同時還有作品流播方式與作家現身方式的移轉。有趣的是，女作者小說中，對於女性人物的所處空間與移動、移動所帶來的身分流轉，乃至參與世界、建構主體的方式，也呈現多元多姿的想像與描述，一方面折映了現實婦女的時新際遇，另一方面又再現了女作者的主體感知。不同空間所代表的行為意義、移動所引發的身分流轉，以及涉入公共領域所呈示的自我形象，無論發生在小說內部或是小說外部，都提供了很好的鑑鏡，可據以觀察清末民初女作者所建構的世界觀與主體意識。本文將以清末民初計十五位女作者的小說為研究材料，觀察女作者小說中女性人物的所在空間與移動敘述，兼及小說文本的問世、傳播方式，探析小說內外的移動現象及其意義，希望能揭顯其中所蘊含的空間意識與世界觀、性別認知與身分主體。

The newly-introduced idea of “women’s rights” at the turn of the 20th century exerted a great impact on women writers, causing them to step out of their confined inner chambers and into a new territory for individual personal development, which at the same time remained paradoxically intertwined within the web of traditional patriarchal ethical and familial bonds. Fiction, a genre that had hitherto been seen as peripheral and of low social standing, started to move upwards to occupy an important place in the social milieu of the Late Qing period. At this time, women, who had been excluded from mainstream, male-dominated literary circles, began to gain recognition. Women writers not only gained recognition, but they also started to play important roles that they never had played before. What they wrote shifted from more esteemed genres such as poetry, ci poems, prose, rhymed rhapsody, to less esteemed ones such as popular fiction. In addition to a shift to different literary genres, this “movement” signified a change in their conception of identity, the ways in which their works were disseminated, and how authors presented themselves. Interestingly, because of the change of space and the movement that followed from it, the concept of identity among women writers also underwent a significant change, so much so that their intent to take part in worldly affairs and to construct their selves found new imagination and expression in their writing. This indicates that a new reality was appearing and that a new awareness of selfhood was unfolding for them. These new ways of behaving within their new space, the switching and flowing of identity, and a new self-image about who they really were, all constitute a very important foundation from which to investigate the worldview and self consciousness of these Late Qing and Early Republican women writers. This article will examine the fictional works of fifteen women writers from this period to see how they move, how they understand and relate their moving in the real world and in their writings. It will also look into the birth of their fictional texts as well as how they were published and disseminated. In sum, the aim of this study is twofold: first, to explore the space consciousness, the worldview, the gender recognition and the subjectivity of women writers at the turn of the 20th century; and second, to reflect on their significance in literary history.