高行健早期的小說藝術理論與實踐：以《現代小說技巧初探》為中心

Abstract

本文回顧和檢閱高行健早期的小說藝術理論與實踐，以《現代小說技巧初探》為中心，再加上當年數篇未收錄此書的小說理論文章，探析高行健早期小說藝術理論的「現代」語境和小說形式革新主張。《現代小說技巧初探》最大嘗試突破的要點在於專注談「什麼是現代小說技巧？」，而不是停留在1980年代初中國大陸文壇膠著於「我們要不要現代小說技巧？」的消極層面，而本文認為，其中最重要的主張就是有關對「意識流」的重新詮釋和提法，此提法不但是高行健在中後期主張「語言流」的源頭活水，也推動了1980年代中國小說的革新。在高行健早期的小說觀中，這個革新的出發點首先是參照了西方現代主義形式美學的意識流手法，然後再延伸出高行健早期兩項重要的小說形式革新主張，即提倡一種「敘述語言的角度轉換」和「非情節性和非典型化的小說書寫」。本文嘗試探討這兩項小說形式革新主張在高行健早期中篇小說《有隻鴿子叫紅唇兒》和短篇小說《給我老爺買魚杆》等創作的實踐程度和其得失。

This article reviews and examines Gao Xingjian’s early theory and practice of the art of fi ction. Its main focus is A Preliminary Examination of Modern Fictional Techniques, but several essays that were not included in this book are also incorporated. This article explores the modern context and advocacy of innovation in fi ctional forms seen in Gao Xingjian’s early theories of the art of fiction. The most crucial attempted breakthrough in A Preliminary Examination of Modern Fictional Techniques was its focus on the question “what are modern fictional techniques” rather than emphasizing the negative question “do we want modern fictional techniques?” like the mainland Chinese literary world did at the beginning of the 1980s. This article holds that the most critical proposal in the above mentioned theoretical works was related to the reinterpretation and reformulation of the “stream of consciousness.” This reformulation was not only the source of Gao Xingjian’s subsequent advocacy of a “stream of language” but was also a driving force behind the renewal of the Chinese novel in the 1980s. In Gao Xingjian’s early conception of fi ction, this renewal originated throught reference to the Western Modernist formal aesthetic technique of the stream of consciousness. This technique was subsequently extended in the development of two of Gao Xingjian’s crucial early proposals for the renewal of the fi ctional form: advocating a “change of perspective in narrative language” and “nonplot-driven and nontypical fi ction writing.” This article discusses the degree to which these two proposals for the reform of the fi ctional form were applied in Gao Xingjian’s early novella Such a Pigeon Called Red Lips and the short story Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather and assesses their effectiveness.