从城市边缘走向文坛中心 ——"亭子间作家"及其文化释义

亭子间之被作为上海城市的一个符号得以流传,是因为在20世纪20~40年代,它接纳了一大批后来在文学史留名的作家,“亭子间作家”由此被演绎为上海作家的代名词。但在当时,许多“典型上海作家”与亭子间并无直接关系,把“亭子间作家”作为上海作家的一种群体象征,反映了我们以往文学史的贫乏。居住亭子间的作家大多数是外来的寻梦者,当他们走到文坛中心,并取得了话语权后,一段以他们的生活和创作来定义的文学史就产生了。因此,亭子间无论是作为一个实体空间抑或一种文化隐喻,都有其特殊的涵义,它是初出茅庐的外来作家进入城市社会的第一个落脚点,也是他们走向文坛中心的第一级台阶。

From the City Margin to the Center of the Literary Stage: A Cultural Interpretation of the "Garret Writers"

The garret(tingzijian) became a cultural symbol of Shanghai because it was the place from which a large group of famous writers in the history of modern Chinese literature came to the literary stage between the 1920s and the 1940s.The term tingzijian writers thus grew to be a synonym for Shanghai writers.However,during that period,many "typical" Shanghai writers actually had nothing to do with tingzijian.To use the term tingzijian writers to describe the group identity of Shanghai writers,therefore, is a reflection of our misinformed understanding of Chinese literary history.Most writers who happened to live in tingzijian were dream-seekers from outside the metropolitan city of Shanghai.When they came to the literary center and managed to monopolize the discursive power,a literary history defined by their life and works was born.Either as a physical location or as a cultural metaphor,tingzijian had its specific connotation.It was the first landing point where the newly arrived would-be writers had their first contact with the metropolitan life of Shanghai.Tingzijian was also the place from which these would-be writers began to climb their first step toward the center of the Chinese literary stage.