正眼看世界——日治台灣新舊文學論戰帶動的時空認知變化

Facing the World with Observation: Chronotopic Transformations Driven by the New-Old Literature Debate in 1920s Taiwan

本文解釋1920年代「新舊文學論戰」是台灣首次將文學予以問題化，從而造成社會時空認知的重要變革。台灣這個文學變革，與西歐的現代小說之出現有可資比擬之處，因此，本文借助西方文學理論展開三部分推論：（1）時空體作為文學研究的方法論：借用瓦特及巴赫金的概念，提出「時空體」方法論，並設定具體的時空、準確的觀察作為分析台灣新舊文學論戰的基本判準；（2）新舊文學論戰的時空體交鋒：探討文學論戰由最初的文白語言之爭轉向文學的時空體系之辯，雙方在詩和小說的攻防，造成傳統文學的引譬連類式世界觀發生鬆動，並促使關注當下經驗時空認知受到社會肯認；（3）賴和作品時空轉變為例證：以橫跨舊新文學創作的賴和為例，分析他的詩作與現實的關係，以及從舊詩轉向新文學的歷程，以印證他的時空認知變革。透過以上三部分的論證，本文指出1920年代台灣新舊文學論戰，真正引發台灣整個世代的社會時空認知變革。

This article argues that the New-Old Literature Debate in 1920s Taiwan marked the first moment in which literature was problematized, leading to a significant transformation in the societal perception of time and space. Since this transformation is comparable to the emergence of the modern novel in Europe, the article draws on Western literary theory to compare conceptions of time and space, developing three main lines of argumentation. The first section, entitled“Chronotope as a Methodological Framework for Literary Studies,”draws on the concepts of Ian Watt and Mikhail Bakhtin. In it, the“chronotope”is foregrounded as a methodological approach. It emphasizes concrete spatiotemporal settings and precise observation as the analytical foundation for interpreting Taiwan’s debate on new and old literature. The second section,“Chronotopic Confrontation in the New-Old Literary Debate,”examines how the debate evolved from an initial dispute over classical versus vernacular language into a deeper confrontation between competing literary chronotopes. Through the contestation around poetry and fiction, the traditional worldview—based on metaphorical analogy and categorical association—began to erode, giving way to a growing social recognition of contemporary experiential time and space. The third section,“Lai He as a Case of Chronotopic Transformation,”focuses on Lai He, a writer who spanned both old and new literary practices, as a representative figure. In its analysis of the relationship between his poetry and social reality, as well as his transition from traditional poetry to modern literature, it illustrates a shift in his perception of time and space. Together, these arguments demonstrate that the literary debates of the 1920s catalyzed a profound transformation in Taiwan’s chronotopic consciousness, reshaping how a generation imagined time and space.