第一章 導 言
Chapter One Introduction
第一節 什麼是文學Section One What Is Literature1．
什麼是文學？
這是個難於回答的問題。人們通常認為，屬於文學的特性其實在非文學的話語和實踐中也是必不可少的。例如，修辭手法常常被認為對文學才是至關重要的，而在其他類型的話語中則純屬裝飾。而今，在非文學的文本中——不論在弗洛伊德的心理分析案例的解釋中，還是在一些哲學論證的著作中，都常運用修辭手法，而且修辭手法還起著重要的作用。通過說明修辭手法在其他類型的話語中同樣可以塑造思想，理論家們論證了在非文學性文本中文學性的重要作用，這就使文學和非文學的區別變得越發錯綜複雜了。
1．What is literature?
This is a difficult question. Qualities often thought to be literary turn out to be crucial to non-literarydiscourses and practices as well. For instance, rhetorical devices have often been thought crucial to literaturebut have been considered purely ornamental in other sorts of discourses. Now, in non-literary texts—whetherFreud’s accounts of his psychoanalytic cases or works of philosophical arguments rhetorical devices are oftenemployed and playing important roles. In showing how rhetorical figures shape thought in other discourses,theorists demonstrate a powerful literariness at work in supposedly non-literary texts, thus complicating thedistinction between the literary and the non-literary.
文學起源於人們對講述人類的某些經驗的興趣。文學與哲學在古希臘和古羅馬的口語文化中同出一母。盡管亞裏士多德之後文學與哲學被劃分隔離，縱觀中世紀、現代以及後現代文化變遷過程，依然可見文學與哲學牽連互動的“兄弟關係”和最富有成效的縱橫交叉。文學作品具有的公眾影響力，為作家提供了表達政治觀點和意見的平台。公眾影響力也正是政治不得不關心文學的原因——作家威脅著政治的穩定。文學和政治密不可分。關於文學與政治的討論永遠不會停止，因為文學就是政治。科學技術作為動態的智力力量常常影響著在其作品中含有科技思想的男女作家們的文學想象；無數事例說明科學可能印上文學的形式，如艾略特及其小說、達爾文的進化論，都表明了某些科技主題在文學作品中得到了反映，而科技則成了小說的部分元素。從浪漫主義時期到現代的科幻小說，文學與科技的互動關係是不難理解的。隨著網絡時代的到來，許多學者掌握了一些將傳統文學研究方法同現代科技相結合的方法，創建了計算機可以識別的文本、文學作品數據庫、《數字化人文學科伴侶》等。
既然學者們把文學、哲學、曆史學、語言學、政治理論、心理分析等各方麵的思想融合在一起，那麼他們為什麼還要勞神地去看他們正在解讀的文本究竟是不是文學呢？
The original source of literature arises from people’s interest in telling a story about some aspects ofhuman experiences. Literature and philosophy share a common parentage in the oral tradition of ancientGreece and Rome. The dynamic“sibling relationship”between literature and philosophy and the mostfruitful intersections of philosophy and literature can still be seen by an overview of the medieval, modern,and postmodern traditions though a post-Aristotelian division between literature and philosophy was made.
The public voice of literary works gives writers a platform for expressing political ideas or dissatisfaction. Thepublic voice is also the very reason politics has to be concerned with literature—writers threaten politicalstability. Literature and politics are closely interrelated and can never be separated. There is no end to thepossibilities of the topic“politics and literature”, because literature is politics. Science and technology asthe dynamic intellectual force has often influenced literary imagination of men and women of writers whohave embodied scientific ideas in their works; numerous examples can be taken to illustrate how sciencemay possibly bear on literary forms, for instance, George Eliot and her fiction, Darwin’s evolutionary theory,both of which demonstrate some scientific and technical themes have been reflected in literary works whilescience and technology have been turned into some elements of fictions. It’s not difficult to understand thedynamics between science and literature from the Romantic period to science fiction in the modern age. Now,with the arrival of the Internet, many scholars, having mastered the skills needed to blend traditional scholarlymethods with the newer technology, have created machine-readable texts, literary databases, A companionto Digital Humanities, etc. Since scholars intermingle ideas from literature, philosophy, history, linguistics,political theory, psychoanalysis and so on, why should they worry about whether the texts they’re reading areliterary or not?
文學表述再現著文化，而文化又是文學的起源或起因。文學與文化緊密相連。文化包括並涵蓋了文學，文學隻是文化的精彩部分和一種獨特的文化實踐。不同的文化影響著文學的界定。不同的思想、信念、國家和曆史階段不僅影響文學標準的構建而且影響對文學的界定。
Literature expresses or represents its culture which is its source or cause. Literature and culture areclosely interrelated. Culture includes and encompasses literature while literature is only the highlight of itsculture and a particular cultural practice. Different cultures affect defining literature. Differing ideas, beliefs,countries and historical periods not only affect the construction of literary standards but also affect definingliterature.
非文學現象的“文學性”就表明文學的概念仍然起著一定的作用，因而需要進一步討論。到底什麼是文學？當代著名文學理論家喬納森·卡勒說：“文學就是一個特定的社會認為是文學的任何作品，也就是由文化權威們認定可以算作文學作品的任何文本。”但他又接著說，當然，這樣的結論是絕對不會令人滿意的。它隻是調換了問題，而沒有解決問題：不去問“什麼是文學”，而用是什麼讓我們或“一個特定的社會”把一些東西界定為文學的問題去代替。他又進一步解釋說，“當語言脫離了其他語境，超越了其他目的時，它就可以被解讀成文學。”“文學是一種可以引起某種關注的言語行為或文本。”解讀這樣的文本，讀者不需要假定是某段言語讓他們做某些事，他們會主動注意到潛在的複雜性，並尋求隱含的意義。
The“literariness”of non-literary phenomena indicates that the notion of literature continues to playa role and needs to be further discussed. What is literature after all? The contemporary famous Americanliterary theorist Jonathan Culler concludes:“Literature is whatever a given society treats as literature—aset of texts that cultural arbiters recognize as belonging to literature.”But he continues: Such a conclusionis completely unsatisfying, of course. It simply displaces instead of resolving the question: rather thanask“what is literature?”we need to ask“what makes us (or some other society) treat something asliterature?”He also explains:“When language is removed from other contexts, detached from otherpurposes, it can be interpreted as literature.”“Literature is a speech act or textual event that elicits certainkinds of attention.”Reading such a text, readers attend to potential complexities and look for implicitmeanings, without assuming that the utterance is telling them to do something.
我們可以把文學作品理解成具有某種屬性或某種特點的語言，我們也可以把文學看做程式（語言形式）的產物，或者某種關注的結果。從語言學的視角來看，文學是一種把語言本身置於“突出地位”的語言。文學是把文本中各種要素和成分都組合在一種錯綜複雜的關係中的語言。文學是虛構——文學作品是對“真實世界”言語的具有虛構性的模仿。文學是審美對象，即語言的美學作用。文學是互文性的或者自反性的建構。文學的互文性和它的自反性並不是一個界定特點，而是語言的某些方麵的突出運用和有關語言再現的問題，在其他地方可能也會觀察到同樣的現象。看來，不論從哪種視角都不能包容另一種而成為一種綜合全麵的觀點。
We can think of literary works as language with particular properties or features, and we can also thinkof literature as the product of conventions (language forms) and a certain kind of attention. From the linguisticperspective: Literature is language that“foregrounds”language itself. Literature is language in which thevarious elements and components of the text are brought into a complex relation. Literature is considered asfiction—literary works are fictional imitations of“real world”utterances. Literature is regarded as aestheticobject, i.e. the aesthetic function of language. Literature is considered as intertextual or self-reflexiveconstruct. The intertextuality and self-reflexivity of literature is not a defining feature but a foregroundingof aspects of language use and questions about representation that may also be observed elsewhere. Neitherperspective, it seems, can englobe the other to become the comprehensive perspective.
文學的界定是個見仁見智的問題。我國出版的《現代漢語詞典》把文學定義為“以語言文字為工具形象化地反映客觀現實的藝術，包括戲劇、詩歌、小說、散文等”。英國出版的《文學詞彙詞典》給文學下的定義是：文學是個含糊的術語，通常指屬於史詩、戲劇、抒情詩、小說、短篇小說、頌歌等主要文體的著作。如果我們把某種東西叫做“文學”，相對其他任何東西而言，那個術語“文學”就帶有質量的含義，暗指所談的作品質量優秀，遠在普通的作品之上。然而，很多著作並不能歸入某種主要的文學類型，但由於它們的寫作極有價值，具有獨創性和普遍的審美及藝術成就，還是可以認為是文學的，如科學家達爾文的《物種起源》，曆史學家J. B. 伯裏的《羅馬帝國衰亡史》等。《美國大學詞典》對文學的定義是：文學是以表達永久而普遍興趣的思想與有關的說法和形式為特征或基本特點的詩歌、虛構小說、曆史、傳記、散文等著作。文學是特定語言、時期、人民、主題等的所有作品的統稱，如英語文學。《新牛津英語詞典》定義文學為“是書寫的，特別是那些被認為有優秀持久藝術價值的作品”。
Defining literature is a question that different people look at it in different ways and have differentviews. The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary published in our country defines literature as art of reflectingthe objective reality through images by the use of written languages, including drama, poem, novel, prose,etc. A Dictionary of Literary Terms published in Great Britain gives literature the definition: A vague termwhich usually denotes works which belong to the major genres: epic, drama, lyric, novel, short story, ode, etc.
If we describe something as“literature”, as opposed to anything else, the term carries with it qualitativeconnotations which imply that the work in discussed has superior qualities; that it is well above the ordinaryrun of written works. However, there are many works which cannot be classified in the main literary genreswhich nevertheless may be regarded as literature by virtue of the excellence of their writing, their originalityand their general aesthetic and artistic merits. For instance, scientist Darwin’s On the Origin of Species,historian J.B. Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, etc. The definition of literature given byThe American College Dictionary is that“writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideasof permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, romance, history,biography, essays, etc.”It is the entire body of writings of a specific language, period, people, subject, etc.:
the literature of England. The New Oxford Dictionary of English defines literature as“written works,especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit”.
2．文學的特點通過閱讀文學作品和分析上述文學定義，我們明白了世界各國的文學都有下列共同的特點。
2．The features of literatureBy reading literary works and analyzing the definitions of literature mentioned above, we’ve come to seethe common features of different national literatures as follows.
2.1 文學是語言的藝術使用文學作品的作者藝術地使用語言。最重要的是，文學語言強調詞的內涵意義而不是字麵意義。不像科學語言主要強調語言的字麵價值，文學家以一種更微妙的方式使用語言——充分發揮詞可能含有的激起感情聯係的內涵意義。“母親”這個詞就是個切題的好例子。它的字麵意義隻是“母親”，但內涵意義卻包含有“保護、溫暖、關心、熱愛、獻身、家庭、童年的幸福記憶”等。因此，文學是言語的藝術，即語言的藝術使用。
2.1 Literature is the artistic use of languageAuthors of literary works make use of language artistically. Most importantly, literary languageemphasizes connotative rather than denotative meanings of words. Unlike scientific language which mainlyemphasizes the denotative value of language, writers of literature use language in a more subtle manner—to bring into full play all the emotional associations that words may carry. A good case in point is the wordmother, whose denotation is simply the female parent, but the connotation may include such meanings asprotection, warmth, care, love, devotion, home, and a happy memory of one’s childhood. Thus, literature is theart of words, i.e. the artistic use of language.
2.2 文學是一種藝術文學是“以語言文字為工具形象化地反映客觀現實的藝術”。文學作品是一個語言活動過程，這個過程設計出一個虛構的世界，其中包括陳述人、角色、事件和隱含的讀者。作者收集或想象一些或全部寫作材料。這也許就是為什麼文學常常被認為是想象的著作的原因。
甚至主要依靠實實在在事件的曆史小說也是虛構的，因為曆史小說中包含有曆史上絕不存在的人物、對話、事件和背景。文學的虛構性也在於作家對其作品施行的藝術掌控。這種藝術掌控使寫作作品的材料產生出風格化的效果，這樣，就把文學作品與客觀現實分開了。這種分開情況的發生隻是因為在文學現象與真實生活之間總是存在著明顯的差異。文學來源於現實生活，但文學作品中反映出來的生活卻可以而且應該比普通的實際生活更高，更強烈，更有集中性，更典型，更理想，因此就更帶普遍性。
2.2 Literature is an artLiterature is an“art of reflecting the objective reality through images by the use of written languages”.
The literary work is a linguistic event which projects a fictional world that includes speaker, actors, events,and an implied audience. Authors make up or imagine some or all the materials. This is perhaps whyliterature is often thought of as imaginative literature. Even historical fiction, which chiefly relies on factualevents, is also fictional, as it includes characters, dialogues, events, and settings that never existed in history.
The fictional quality of literature also lies in the artistic control that writers exercise over the work. Thisartistic control produces the effect of stylizing the materials of the work, thus setting it apart from the real.
This occurs simply because there always exists an obvious disparity between literary phenomena and real life.
The source of literature is real life. But life as reflected in works of literature can and ought to be on a higherplane, more intense, more concentrated, more typical, nearer the ideal, and therefore more universal thanactual everyday life.
2.3 文學是真實的盡管文學大多是“虛構的”，但它生來就有真實的本質。這樣，文學就存在著一種——其想象的特性與其真實的人類情況的再現間的似非而是的論點。換句話說， 我們會發現文學在虛構性與真實性間有一種悖論。文學的真實性主要存在於下列三方麵。
2.3 Literature is trueDespite that literature is mostly“fictional”, it has the innate nature of being true. Thus, there existsa paradox in literature—its imaginative properties against its representation of actual human conditions. Inother words, we can find in literature a paradox between fictionality and truth. There are mainly three ways forliterature to be true.
首先，文學對真實生活的事實而言是真實的。文學直接說明對真人、真事、真地點的描寫。更重要的是，從傳達人生真實思想的動力這個角度來說，文學是真實的。
其次，文學由於間接地說明了作者在作品中表達的思想而存在著真實性，因為作者盡管在其作品中用所有的細節編造了一個想象的世界，但這個想象的世界是建立在作者對真實世界的思想基礎之上的。
最後，讀者在文學作品中讀到的通常是典型人物和接連巧合的活動，那是作者把真實生活的混亂狀況整理得有條不紊，把真實的人們典型化成各種人物，並詳述他們在真實生活中可能進行的各種活動。這樣，我們常能發現文學作品中的各種人物代表著我們真實生活的各種熟人。
First of all, literature is true to the facts of real life. It directly states the depictions of real people, actualplaces, and existing events. More importantly, literature is true in the sense of its power of communicatingtruthful ideas of human life.
Then, literature is true because of the indirectly stated ideas that the authors present in literary works.
Though all the details of a literary work make up an imaginary world, such a world is based on the author’sideas about the real world.
Finally, what we readers usually encounter in literary works are the typical characters and probableactions. By imposing order on the chaos of real life, authors present characters who typify real people, andthey recount actions that would probably happen in real life. Because of this, we are often be able to findcharacters who represent recognizable types of people in real life.
2.4 文學是審美對象文學的美學特點在於其語言的美學作用。現代西方美學的重要理論家伊曼努爾·康德認為，美學就是在物質世界和精神世界之間架起一座橋梁的嚐試，是溝通一個由力量和龐然大物組成的世界與一個由理念組成的世界的嚐試。審美對象，例如文學作品、音樂和美術作品通過作用於感官的形式（語言、聲音、色彩）和精神的內涵（思想理念）融為一體來實現把物質與精神結合在一起的可能性。一部文學作品就是一個審美對象，這是因為在暫時排除或擱置了其他交流功能之後，文學促使讀者去思考形式與內容間的關係。審美對象具有“無目的的合目的性”。它們的建構具有一種目的性：使它們的各個部分都協調一致地去實現某個目的，但這個目的就是藝術作品本身，是蘊含在作品當中的愉悅，或者是由作品引起的愉悅。我們從文學中得到的愉悅能夠在作者使用比如隱喻、情節、人物、象征、諷刺、懸念、主題、有韻律的語言等文學技巧的方式中發現。所有這些文學元素結合在一起就組成了一種藝術美的有機連貫性。並且，我們在感覺文學藝術美的過程中，還能探索文學的深刻意義。
大作家們無疑很能把文學的美學品質與作品要傳達的思想緊密地聯係起來，使用令人愉悅的社會習俗來提高和傳達他們的主題。
2.4 Literature is aesthetic objectThe aesthetic property of literature lies in its aesthetic function of language. For Immanuel Kant,the primary theorist of modern Western aesthetics, the aesthetic is the name of the attempt to bridge thegap between the material and the spiritual world, between a world of forces and magnitudes and a worldof concepts. Aesthetic objects, such as works of literature, music and paintings, with their combinationof sensuous form (languages, sounds, colours) and spiritual content (ideas), illustrate the possibility ofbringing together the material and the spiritual. A literary work is an aesthetic object because, with othercommunicative functions initially bracketed or suspended, it engages readers to consider the interrelationbetween form and content. Aesthetic objects have a“purposiveness without purpose”. There is apurposiveness to their construction: they are made so that their parts will work together towards some end.
But the end is the work of art itself, pleasure in the work or pleasure occasioned by the work. The pleasure weget from literature can be found in the way authors use literary techniques, such as metaphor, plot, character,symbolism, irony, suspense, theme, and rhythmic language. All such literary elements combine together toform an organic coherence of artistic beauty. Moreover, while experiencing beauty of literature, we can tracethe profound meanings in literature. Great authors are undoubtedly very competent to make the aestheticqualities of literature inextricably bound up with the ideas conveyed by their works. They use pleasurableconventions to enhance and communicate their themes.
2.5 文學的類型文學的類型不能認為是固定的標簽，但可看成是具體曆史、文化和意識形態的產物或構建，是不斷變化的過程或繁複交錯的流動。一般說來，文學分為四大類型：詩歌、戲劇、小說和散文。
如果說散文是語言使用的擴展，詩歌則力求簡潔。詩歌用高濃縮的句法，向讀者呈現出思想、感情、反思、感覺的製高點。詩歌常常表達人類最強烈、最深刻的感覺。很多優美的詩歌成了我們終生的朋友，我們反複讀誦，以求對人生的平和反思、理解和頓悟。詩歌又分成抒情詩（包括頌歌、民謠、十四行詩等）、史詩（即敘事詩）和戲劇詩。
戲劇是通過演員為觀眾好和為觀眾高興而在舞台上或影視中表演的文學類型。戲劇的本質是通過言語和行為來塑造人物和發展劇情。盡管現代劇使用的是散文對話，原則上戲劇語言應像日常用語一樣，但很多過去的戲劇用的是詩歌形式。戲劇又分為悲劇、喜劇、悲喜劇、家庭劇和傳奇劇。
小說，或叫散文小說，從廣義來說，是用散文或韻文形式寫的任何文學記事；從狹義來說，小說隻指用散文寫的記事，並且有時簡直用作“（長篇）小說”的同義詞。它通常有情節、人物、活動和對話。有時故事是“真的”，但更多時候不是。有的小說，如曆史小說或自傳小說，可能集中在真人上， 並且情節可能依托的是真實事件，但人物間的互動方式和情節如何展開就是作者自己的創造了。散文小說的本質就是敘事，敘述相連的一連串事件和活動。小說通常集中敘述一個或幾個人物，如何處理與其他人物間的關係，如何試圖解決他們間的問題，其結果也敘述了他們是如何變化和成長的。小說又可分成曆史小說、心理小說、社會風俗小說、自然主義小說、現實主義小說、超現實主義小說、魔幻現實小說、後現代小說等。
散文指任何非虛構性文章，並且近來它又叫做創作性非虛構作品。它是所有文學形式中最靈活、最適應的一種。散文包括隨筆、傳記、自傳、遊記、回憶錄、自然景觀、人物特寫、新聞報道、特寫文章、曆史著作之類的東西。散文的主要目的是陳述事實並對曆史、科學、時事的真實世界給出符合邏輯的結論。
2.5 Literary ClassificationsLiterary genres can not be considered as fixed labels but can be considered as histotical, cultural andideological specifics or construct, ever changing processes or interlacing fluid. Generally speaking, literaturemay be classified into four categories or genres: poetry, drama, prose fiction and nonfiction prose.