"理论热"的消退与文学理论研究的出路

持续多年的“西方文论热”使国内人文学界实现了与20世纪60年代以后国际学术的接轨。至少取得三方面的收获:认识范式的转型、认识假设的改变和认识(批评)方法的更新。然而,随着这一理论热以及后来又时兴了一阵的文化研究热的消退,国内文论研究目前已陷入一个备受冷落的困境。在西方,“理论热”因自身的原因同样消退了,但理论界并不因此而寂寞,他们正在对过去20多年的“理论热”进行反思。我们的理论研究也应该进入一个更为成熟的阶段,应该摆脱别人提问、而我们跟在后面进行思考那样一个蹒跚学步的阶段。我们或可作出三个选择:返回经典,深化实践,该放手则放手。唯其如此,方可把我们的文论研究推向一个新的、更高的层次。

Reflections on the Aftermath of "High Theory"

It is since the beginning of 1980s that the Western "High Theory" wave has spread into the Chinese academic field. As a result, various disciplines in the Chinese humanities have been ushered into and geared with the international academic world,specifically speaking, in terms of epistemological paradigms, theoretical assumptions as well as in methodologies. However, as the so-called "age of theory" in the West has passed into its lowest ebb, our Chinese theoreticians are also bogged down in predicament to certain degrees. This lecture is intended to give a topological analysis of what the Chinese theoreticians have achieved in the past decades, as well as what kind of problems they are confronted with at present. Starting from that, the lecturer submits some of his own views and three suggestions concerning the direction and emphasis of the theoretical research in the near future. They are, among other things, to re-read those primary theoretical classics, to go in for specific case-studies and, the last but not the least, to give up some of the research topics which are of no immediate concern, or impracticable, under the present Chinese circumstances.