近現代中西女性自傳之研究──回顧與展望

Researches on Women's Autobiographies in Modern China: Reviews and Prospects

女性自傳是少數幾種由女性自己書寫而非由男性代言的文本，透過女性自傳，既可對婦女有更全面的瞭解，也可跳脫男性視角的歷史研究。本文首先探討女性自傳之重要性與特殊性，再分別回顧西方與中文學界的女性自傳研究。藉由以上討論試著回答以下兩個問題：史學領域如何與既有的文學領域研究做區隔？中國女性自傳研究又如何走出自己的特色？針對前者，本文認為應注意自傳的時間性──由過去到現在是自傳書寫的主線，而傳主書寫的當下也不斷地與過去對話。針對後者，本文認為中國女性自傳研究對理論的運用需建立在對中西兩方歷史、文化與社會背景的熟稔上，一來可避免因理論而忽視史實，太依賴理論的結果易導致我們無法區分中西女性在自傳書寫角度、題材等面向上的相同點究竟是性別或文化因素使然；二來也可避免中國女性自傳之研究成為解釋西方自傳理論的註腳。

Autobiography is one of the few literary genres used by women. Thanks to women's autobiographies, we can now have a more comprehensive understanding of women's history, while escaping from the historical perspective of men. This article first discusses the significance and particularity of women's autobiographies before reviewing Western and Chinese studies on the topic. This discussion will enable us to answer the following questions: how do historical studies differ from literary ones? And how were the main features of the study of Chinese women's autobiographies formed? In answer to the first question, this article wishes to emphasize the importance of time in autobiographies: not only does the narrative of this genre of writing progresses from past to present, but autobiographers are also engaged in a continuous dialogue with the past. As to the second question, this study argues that theories should be used against the historical, cultural, and social backgrounds of both China and the West. On the one hand, this method makes it possible to avoid emphasizing theory at the expense of facts; an exaggerated reliance on theories can easily lead to a failure to understand whether similarities between China and the West have their origins in gender or culture. On the other hand, we can thus prevent the study of Chinese women's autobiographies from becoming a mere footnote to an explanation of Western theories on autobiography.