「新」的光譜：晚清新小說的來龍去脈

The Matrix of the New: Late Qing New Novel and Its Story

「文學革命」這個詞似乎多半與「五四新文學」相提並論，但有關「新」的各種探索，早在晚清時期就已經開始。本文以「新」做為「論述方法」，提出「兩種新」的概念，以「理念意識之新」和「通俗表象之心」為這個「光譜」的兩極命名。以之為辨識、指認、定位20世紀以降，在小說論述中的「新的光譜」兩端間擺蕩遊離的諸多新的面向，剖析文學「理念」和「實踐」過程種展現的複雜性。這個光譜的運作，遙遙指向從《新小說》到《新青年》，從梁啟超到陳獨秀，從五四到民初小說，之間的一條以「新」為主軸的「小說地形圖」。本文指出：20世紀以來的中國文學和藝術創作，一直在「第一種新」和「第二種新」的表述光譜間。折衝擺蕩，沒有停歇。

"The term of Literary Revolution has been most associated with the May Fourth Movement in Chinese literary history. The “search for the new,” however, started much earlier in Late Qing times, with the “new novel” movement. This paper provides new ways to conceptualize the Late Qing new novel, as it marks the beginning of the search for modern literature. It provides two new definitions of the “new,” one foregrounding the intellectual and ideological “new,” the other focusing more on the popular and phenomenal “new.” By means of these two definitions of the “new,” this paper teases out how the writing of the new novels oscillated between ideological conviction, instigated by the reform intellectuals, and popular newness, and how these two ideas became prevalent in late Qing society. This paper concludes that later 20th century writing has seen a repetition of this oscillation process, and can therefore be understood as the “matrix” of the new. The original material used in this paper includes works by Liang Qichao, Wu Jianren, Li Boyuan, Bao Tianxiao with reference to contemporary scholarship."