阎连科 中国人民大学
Yan, Lianke, Renmin University of China
原文Original
当代中国文学的样貌及其独特性
自20世纪90年代后，被我们一再称道的优秀作家的代表作，其实和我们当代、当下的现实竟是都无直接关联的。那些被批评家一再言说称道的作品，与现在时的中国现实和经验，都有着距离。
我们不能说，当代文学疏远当代现实就是它的独特性，更不能说，当代主要作家的主要作品不探究当下的人心灵魂是它的共有性。但从这些最重要作家的重要作品中，我们看不到作家和当代现实的对应关系与精神，看不到当代作家面对现实时的立场和态度，听不到面对今天中国如此丰富、怪诞、复杂的现实时，中国最有影响力的作家集体的声音和曲调。
中国作家在经历了模仿西方文学的过程后，开始意识到本土性表达的意义，莫言在他的《檀香刑》后记中称自己的写作是一种“大倒退”，在《生死疲劳》中不仅使用纯正中国式的“六道轮回”去结构故事，还不惜对现代年轻读者阅读的伤害，用章回体进行篇章写作。这种明确的努力，是莫言写作的一种大智慧，是他的清醒与洞明，可惜读者和批评家忽略了这一点。王安忆一直被誉为是“新时期”文学的“活化石”，每种风潮与主义，她都有创新的代表作，但在《长恨歌》之后，她却几乎完全扎在了“中国经验”的写作里。余华的《兄弟》是颇受议论的一部书，在这种被议被说中，其实包含着曾经“先锋”的余华，如今“传统式”的对故事的忠诚和老实，让读者无法认定今天的余华还是昨天那个余华。贾平凹的《秦腔》是难以让人一口气读完的一部书，但这并不影响人们对它的喜爱和称道。为什么会这样？大约其中包含了大家一以贯之的对贾平凹充满旧文人气韵写作的喜好与支持。还有一些别的写作和事例，都可以明证当代文学某种“集体后撤”的信息和信号，证明了当代文学已经开始把各种写作经验吸纳、整合的努力与实践。
当代写作到了当代独特性的形成期。这个“当代写作的独特性”，既不能单调、一味地蔑视国外的写作经验，也不可一头扎进中国式传统的写作路径里；既要含胆有识地抛掉外来的影响，又要把外来的写作给养当做一种写作补给源；既要敢于把传统的写作经验一巴掌推到一边去，又要巧妙地把传统在自己的脉管留下一条河。
译文Translation
The Features and the Uniqueness of Contemporary Chinese Literature
Since the 1990s, the representative works of the (Chinese) writers which we so often praise do in fact not have much connection to our contemporary reality and local situation. The works often mentioned by literary critics have a considerable distance to the modern Chinese situation and experience.
We cannot say that the special feature of contemporary Chinese literature is simply that it is alienated from the contemporary reality, even less should we say that the main works of the main contemporary writers do not explore the common mental and spiritual situation of contemporary people, but we cannot discover that these writers have any connection to the contemporary reality or that they would have a responsive spirit to it. We cannot see the position or attitude of these authors toward this reality, we do not hear the voices and melodies of the most influential Chinese authors today as they face the Chinese reality today which is so rich, strange and complicated.
After a period in which the Chinese writers have imitated western literature, they began to be aware of the meaning of nativeness (bentuxing), and Mo Yan has said in the epilogue to his Tan xiang xing, that his work is actually a “great regress”, and in his Shengsi pilao he not only uses the purely Chinese way of the “six skandhas of the samsara” (liudao lunhui) to construct his stories, and he even does not care about offending modern young readers and uses the system of chapters (zhanghui ti) to continue his narrative. This obvious effort is a kind of great wisdom in the works of Mo Yan, it is his insight and awareness, but, alas, the readers and reviewers neglected this point. Wang Anyi was always praised as the “living stone” of “new age” literature, she produced innovative works for each fashion and each ism, but after her Changhen ge, she became almost totally rooted in writing “the Chinese experience”. Yu Hua’s Brothers (Xiongdi) is a work that was discussed quite a lot, and in this discussion there appeared the former “avant-gardism” Yu Hua who has become a “traditionalist” today, but he is so loyal and honest to the story that the reader cannot distinguish whether he is the Yu Hua of yesterday or today. Jia Pingwa’s Qin qiang is a book that makes it hard for the reader to finish it at once, but this does not influence the love and praise of the readers for it. Why is that so? Possibliy one factor is that everybody unequivocally likes and supports Jia Pingwa’s way of writing as one who shows the flair of an old author. There are some other works and examples, they all can prove that the message and signal of contemporary Chinese literature is something like “after collectivity let go” (jiti hou sa). This shows that contemporary literature already has started and put effort into the absorption and integration of all kinds of literary experiences.
The contemporary works are in the process of developing their uniqueness. This “uniqueness of contemporary works” cannot be monotonous or despising the experiences of foreign works altogether, but it can also not wholeheartedly follow the road of traditional Chinese style writing. The authors must courageously and wisely throw off foreign influences, but at the same time they must nurture foreign writings as a kind of resource for their own works; they must on the one hand get rid of the traditional writing experiences of the (Chinese) tradition, but on the other hand they should skillfully let the stream of the tradition enter their own blood.