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英国《旅行者》杂志中国当代文学特刊背景追记

(2008-11-21 05:38:10)
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文学研究

文化研究

作家

当代文学

翻译

李锐

莫言

阎连科

林白

邵燕君

郁金

分类: 杂文

作者:郁金    时间:2008-11-20

英国《旅行者》杂志中国当代文学特刊背景追记


 《旅行者》(Wasafiri) 第55期,暨2008年秋季号,是一期向
  英国读者介绍中国当代文学艺术的特刊,包括对李锐、莫言、
  阎连科、林白四位作家的访谈录,李锐的短篇小说《桔槔》,
  林白的中篇小说《致命的飞翔》后半篇,多多、尹丽川两位
  诗人的作品各二首;另有五篇学者的应邀专论,以及特邀主
 SG的编辑要旨,标题如下,



  • Suman Gupta   Editorial ── writing China 《描写中国》
  • Gregory B. Lee
    Between the Fall of the Gang of Four and the Rise of Bestsellers:
    Modern China's Long Decade

    《在四人帮的败落与畅销书的兴起之间:当代中国的长久十年》
  • Shao Yanjun(邵燕君)
    'Pretty Women's Writing': Weihui, Mianmian, Chunshu ,
    translated from Chinese by Xiao Cheng,《‘美女作家’:卫慧、棉棉、春树》
  • John Balcom
    Bridging the Gap:Contemporary Chinese Literature from a Translator' s Perspective
    《桥接间隙:一个译者视野中的中国当代文学》
  • Li Rui   Fiction ── Well Sweep, translated from Chinese by John Balcom, 《桔槔》
  • Suman Gupta
    Li Rui, Mo Yan, Yan Lianke, and Lin Bai: four contemporary Chinese Writers interviewed , translated from Chinese by Xiao Cheng,
    《李锐、莫言、阎连科、林白:四位当代中国作家访谈录》
  • Lin Bai Fiction ── Excerpt from The Fatal Flight, translated from Chinese by Xiao Cheng ,《致命的飞翔(节选)》
  • Duo Duo  Poems, translated from Chinese by Gregory B. Lee
  • Yin lichuan  Poems, translated from Chinese by Xiao Cheng
  • Samuel Y. Liang
    Amnesiac Monument, Nostalgic Fashion: Shanghai's New Heaven and Earth
    《失忆的纪念碑与怀旧的时髦:上海的新天地》
  • Evelyn Nien-Ming Ch'ien
    Symbolic Revolutions:Xu Bing and His Language Art
    《符号的革命:徐冰与他的语言美术》
        《旅行者》 是英国开放大学的一份文学杂志,因为办得出色,被 Routledge 出版社‘接管’。Routledge 是全球最大的学术出版社之一,旗下的学术杂志,是其出版质量的标志。被接管以后,杂志编辑部就比较财大气粗一点,打算扩展《旅行者》的视野,做一期中国特刊。但是他们对中国文学完全没有了解,底气不足,初步计划走曲线,讨论美国华人作家,折射反映中国。找SG当特邀主编,因为他是文学批评理论的科班,又写过诸如‘中国在英美媒体中的形像’等文章,并不知道他对中国的文学艺术有兴趣;所谓歪打正着。SG坚决反对隔海回顾的文化寻根角度,立刻对编辑进行中国当代文学启蒙,提出作家访谈与学者专论的框架,弄得编辑特兴奋。于是就定下来了。
        找哪些作家进行访谈,除了莫言和林白之外,我和SG开头没有很明确的观点,考虑过苏童、王朔、阿来。北京大学世界文学所的赵白生推荐了李锐。定下李锐之后,SG希望再找一位女作家,我当时想到的有残雪和铁凝。后来赵白生又提到阎连科。我看了《夏日落》,觉得他是个很有意思的作家,正好《为人民服务》在伦敦出版,《丁村梦》在巴黎出版,我们便决定选他。
        回过头来看,我们的选择,有一条潜在的线索。纸面上,莫言和阎连科的道路几乎一样,从农村到部队到城市,他们都写农民,莫言是诗史,阎连科是现实。同样也写农民,李锐的角度是属于观察者的,不管他的故事多么残酷,他的讲述始终有着诗意化的倾向和理想化的渴求,不同于莫言和阎连科二人,毫不留情地进行自我剖析,让读者无处逃避。对于英国读者,这三位作家笔下的中国农村,在时间、空间、和文化上,都是异域,其不容置疑的异己性(alienness),令人震撼。而林白的作品,把他们带回了熟悉的世界 ── 现代都市中,一个独立个体的私人世界;这是与他们共通的世界。但是林白并不给他们以安慰;她的犀利,不亚于任何人。林白是一把美丽的匕首,致命,却不动声色。
        对中国诗歌现状,我基本不了解,法国里昂大学的G.B.Lee 推荐了多多,SG看过,觉得很好,让我再找一位七十年代出生的女诗人。我看了十来位诗人的作品,眼花缭乱。碰巧SG遇到荷兰莱顿大学的一位教授,强力推荐尹丽川,我感到尹丽川的文字非常自然,很难得。这样,我们的诗人也定下来了。
        《旅行者》不仅讨论文学,还介绍视觉艺术。徐冰的作品,我和SG在北京和伦敦都看过,印象极深,是我们的首选,但是我们对能否找到合适的学者加以评论没有把握,如果找不到,SG打算自己撰文论述。美国明尼苏达大学的E. N-M. Ch'ien 的文章,能够摆脱美国华裔学者惯常的套路,聚焦在徐冰艺术本身,分析他对文字、图形、人际交流的独特探索,让我们感到很满意。
        余下的几篇论文,都是实力派的力作,我就不多说了。
        这篇追记,算是一个记录,让国内的读者了解,有这本中国文学特刊的存在。特别是让年轻的读者了解,在目前中国文学艺术领域鱼目混珠、媒体趣味低俗化的背景下,一流的作家、诗人、艺术家、和学者们,一如既往,在脚踏实地地工作着。

XC, London, Nov.20, 2008.

 


附:论文作者与译者简介

  1. John Balcom teaches at the Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, US, where he heads the Chinese programme. He has been translating modern and contemporary Chinese literature for more than twenty-five years.
  2. Evelyn Nie-Ming Ch'ien is an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, US, in the Department of English and the Programme for Asian American Studies. She is the author of Weird English(2004) and is finishing her second book, The Edges of Language.
  3. Suman Gupta is Professor of Literature and Cultural History at the Open University, UK. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Cross-Cultural Studies of Peking University, China. Recent books include The Theory and Reality of Democracy: A Case Study in Iraq(2006), Social Constructionist Identity Politics and Literary Studies(2007), and Literature and Globalization (forthcoming January 2009).
  4. Gregory B. Lee is Deputy President (Research) of the University of Lyon (Jean Moulin) , France, Director of the Institute for Transtextual and Transcultual Studies and Professor of Chinese and Transcultural Studies. His publications include China's Unlimited: Making the Imaginaries of China and Chineseness(2003). He is currently writing a cultural history of 1980s China.
  5. Samuel Y. Liang taught architecture and art history in China and the US before joining the University of Machester UK as a lecturer in Chinese cultural studies in 2006. His first, forthcoming book, entitled Ephemeral Households, Splintered City: Mapping Modernity in the Sojourner's Shanghai, 1870-1900, maps the spatial, gender, and materialconfigurations of the first Chinese cosmopolitan culture in nineteenth-century Shanghai.
  6. Shao Yanjun is Associate Professor in the Chinese Department of Peking University, Beijing, China. She is the author of The Tilted Literature field (《倾斜的文学场》, 2003) and numerous articles on contemporary Chinese literature. She was selected by the Fifth Forum of Chinese Young Critics as Young Critic of the Year in 2006.
  7. Xiao Cheng has a graduate degree from Peking University, China , and a DPhil in Physical Chemistry from the University of Oxford, UK. She has a longstanding interest in contemporary Chinese literature and literary culture and works as a freelance translator.

 

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