历史小说三论

本文论说三个问题:其一,历史小说应是以作者记忆前时代的真实历史人事为骨干题材的拟实小说,其外延排除各种表意之作和再生小说;能作此区分,才能避免对历史小说的跨元批评。其二,新时期历史小说在创作方法上大都采用传统的现实主义及拟实性浪漫主义,这不是作者的文学观念守旧,而是历史小说品格使然;现实主义,或与浪漫主义结合,为历史小说创作展开永无止境的艺术空间。其三,现当代长篇历史小说不是故事的河,而是生活的海,内容必须大量虚构,滥造历史的可能性因而大增,历史真实具有显著的"似是而非"特性,在这种情况下,只有特别正视历史,熟悉历史,注重"似史"真实性,才可能写出既像历史又超越历史的优秀作品。

Three Remarks on Historical Novel

This article raises three arguments. Firstly, the historical novel should be reality-imitating fiction in which the main subject matter is the record of real historical figures and events in previous age, excluding various pure imaginary works and those derived from fiction. Only by insisting on this can one avoid trans-genre criticism of historical novels. Secondly, current historical novels mostly adopt the methods of traditional Realism and "Reality-imitating" Romanticism. This does not mean that the authors stick to old literary ideas; it is the nature of the historical novel that makes authors do so. Realism, or the combination of Realism and Romanticism, provides boundless artistic space for the creation of historical novels. Thirdly, the modern historical novel is not a river of stories, but an ocean of life; most of its content must be fabricated. This greatly increases the possibility of fabricating history carelessly, and the "historical reality" bears the distinct characteristic of speciousness. Under these circumstances, only if one faces up to history, is familiar with history, and pays attention to similarity between novel and reality, can he/she possibly create excellent works which are not only similar to but also surpass the history.