摩登與激進的變奏：談張獻早期戲劇與上海現代性的關聯

Variations of the Modern and the Radical: On the Relations Between Zhang Xian’s Early Drama and Shanghai Modernity

本文以「摩登」與「激進」為美學分析切入點，論述張獻戲劇的「海派戲劇」特質。生於上海且以上海為創作基地的張獻，其先鋒戲劇和北京的群體有美學以及哲學思想上顯著的不同，而且戲劇特色跟上海的文化地理位置有著內在的關聯，他的作品承接海派文學的系譜，從情慾、時尚等與摩登生活有關的議題入手，實際上探索的是人的存在面對「現代性」時所產生的危機。本文聚焦於張獻八○年代的兩齣先鋒實驗劇，《屋裡的貓頭鷹》跟《時裝街》，還有九○年代的市民戲劇，《樓上的瑪金》跟《美國來的妻子》，在「上海現代性」於歷史進程中再度浮現的框架裡，探索張獻戲劇的歷史意義以及文化價值。筆者發現張獻早期戲劇承襲了海派文化的面向，以戲劇美學表述了「上海現代性」的深刻矛盾。那不可化解的存在矛盾，推動著張獻在不同的空間裡，持續創造不同的美學形式，找尋生命的答案。海納百川的上海，既東且西，既新且舊，因其對「現代性」毫無保留的追求，讓文化生滅反覆更迭，文化主體認同的辯證持續進行。唯有在上海這座中國現代性發跡的城市才有可能涵納張獻持續不斷的「摩登」與「激進」。

With aesthetic qualities related to “the modern” and “the radical” as points of departure, this paper seeks to make manifest the “Shanghai school” characteristics in Zhang Xian’s early drama. Born and based in Shanghai, Zhang Xian creates experimental plays that differ, in terms of aesthetic strategies and philosophical themes, from those by widely-discussed playwrights and directors based in Beijing. The unique characteristics and qualities of his plays, in my view, have intrinsic relationships with the human and cultural geography of Shanghai. Inheriting traits of the Shanghai School, his plays explore the human existential crisis in modernity with seemingly modern topics, such as sexual desire and fashion. This paper focuses on his two avantgarde plays—Night Owls in the House and Fashion Street—in the 1980s and two “shimin” (civic life) plays—Majin on the Floor Above and A Wife from the U.S.—in the 1990s, exploring the historical significance and cultural values of Zhang Xian’s drama in the context of the re-emergence of “Shanghai modernity.” This paper finds that Zhang Xian’s early drama indeed inherits the essence of the “Shanghai School,” and expresses the existential contradiction in “Shanghai modernity” aesthetically. This unresolved contradiction propels Zhang Xian to create new aesthetic strategies in alternative spaces, seeking new answers for existence. Shanghai, as a global city that embraces everything, pursues “modernity” relentlessly. This ongoing pursuit keeps renewing cultural lives and generating dialectics of cultural subjectivity. Only Shanghai, where the advent of modernity in China took place, can accommodate Zhang Xian and his ongoing creative energy.