史传传统的突破与形式革命的突进——论“新历史小说”的叙事经验

一部作品、一位作家、一种文学现象,只有纳入文学史的视野,在艺术流变和文化语境的纵横坐标中,才能准确判断其存在的价值和意义。将“新历史小说”放置于中国当代小说艺术流变进程中来看,一方面,文本所表现的历史故事形态,展现了一个时代的作家们历史观念的变革。另一方面,故事形态变革的深层推进力是20世纪80年代中国当代小说叙事观念的演进,是先锋作家们进行颠覆性的叙事革命中的又一次叙事展望。在历史的虚构性这一问题上,与其说是历史观念导致了作家的虚构,不如说是作家们对小说的虚构特质的认同和实践成全了虚构的历史。在意象上将虚构的历史故事纳入笔端,既突破了长期存在的史传传统的叙事方式,也使得其与之前的叙事革命相比,故事性、可阅读性明显增强。优秀的“新历史小说”文本中传达的历史况味以及人的生存感的真实性,构成了八十年代以来中国小说不断寻求让小说回归小说的书写方式的一种经验沉淀。在当今的创作文坛上,我们拥有太多的理由,将新历史小说的叙事经验进行不断的审度甚至于酝酿。

On the Narrative Experience of "Neohistory Novels"

The value and significance of either a works, a writer or a literary phenomenon can be precisely determined by being incorporated into the category of literary history and placed in the coordinate of artistic transformations and cultural context. Viewed in the process of artistic transformations of modern Chinese novels, ＂neohistory novels＂ have, for one thing, demonstrated the changes in history concepts of writers of one generation by means of the pattern of historical stories represented in the novels. For another, the profound impetus to the change of the story pattern results from another prospect in the subversive narrative revolution implemented by vanguard writers as well as from the evolution in narrative notions of contemporary Chinese novels in the 1980s. In terms of historical fictitiousness, the acknowledgement and practice of fictitiousness in novels on the part of writers have helped to attain the fictitious history rather than history concepts which have led to fictitiousness by writers. By incorporating fictitious historical stories in the novels, ＂neohistory novels＂ have broken through the traditional narrative mode of history novels and have become more appealing and readable compared with previous revolutions in narration. The historical essence and the authenticity of human subsistence mirrored in excellent ＂neohistory novels＂ have constituted an accumulation of experience in the constant quest of a writing mode to restore the truthfulness of Chinese novels since the 1980s. In the present literary arena, there is every reason to constantly scrutinize and deliberate on the narrative experience of neohistory novels.