現代性諧擬：袁牧之電影中的上海都會生活再現

Mimicry of Modernity: Yuan Muzhi’s Cinematic Representations of Shanghai Urban Lives

在這篇論文中，我將重新閱讀袁牧之（1909-1978）的兩部電影─《都市風光》（1935）和《馬路天使》（1937）。學者們長期以來將袁牧之歸類為早期中國左翼影人之一，他的電影《馬路天使》更被認為是經典的中國左翼電影。不同於大多數僅關注其電影內容和形式的學者，在這篇論文中，我將以袁牧之較早的戲劇經歷，特別是他對表演技藝的深入鑽研，作為我分析的出發點。我將說明，他的早期戲劇經歷不僅只是現代戲劇的經歷，其本身就是與現代性的一種「具身性」（embodied）遭遇，這經驗進一步引導他創造超越意識形態需求的電影美學。援引現代性諧擬的批判理論視角，我將首先試圖理解他的戲劇美學與電影美學之間的關係，尤其是在應對現代性存在危機的方面。本文將說明袁牧之如何從早期演出的現代性模擬經歷開始，首先在《都市風光》中創造出諷刺現代城市生活欲望邏輯的殖民諧擬電影手法，然後在《馬路天使》中更進一步超越諧擬手法，讓「基進他者」（radical alterity）美學浮現，作為中國遭逢西方殖民現代性的倫理回應方式。通過這樣的方式，本文也將試圖理解袁牧之的「左轉」變化並不是具有民族主義和革命目的的政治過程，而是一個轉向「他者的臉」（the face of the other）的美學─倫理過程。

In this article I intend to re-read Yuan Muzhi’s (1909-1978) two films—Dushi fengguang (Scenes of City Life, 1935) and Malu tianshi (Street Angels, 1937). Scholars have long categorized Yuan Muzhi as one of the early left-wing filmmakers and his frequently discussed film Street Angels has been canonized as a classic Chinese left-wing movie. Unlike most scholars who only focus on the content and form of his films, in this paper I will take Yuan’s earlier theatrical experiences, especially his dedication to acting, as the starting point for my analyses. I will show that his earlier theatrical experience is not simply an experience of modern theatre but also“an embodied encounter with modernity”per se which further leads him to create cinematic aesthetics that transcends ideological imperatives. Via the critical lenses of mimicry of modernity, I will first seek to understand the relationships between his theatrical and cinematic aesthetics in terms of attempts to address the existential crisis of modernity. This paper will illustrate how Yuan Muzhi’s early theatrical experiences of mimetic modernity leads him, first in Scenes of City Life to create cinematic colonial mimicry satirizing the desiring logic of modern urban life, and then in Street Angels, to further go beyond mimicry and achieve an aesthetics of alterity as an ethical response to China’s colonial relationship to Western modernity. In so doing, this paper will also explore how Yuan Muzhi’s“left turning”change is not a political one with nationalistic and revolutionary purposes but an aesthetic-ethical process directed toward“the face of the other.”