廣覽地球，發現中國—從文學視角觀察晚清小說的「世界」想像

晚清文化界對於新世界觀的接受與詮釋，構成一套不同於傳統的空間表述。做為時代結構一環的晚清小說界，屢將「世界」史地、政治、文化等融入文藝脈絡，展現具有新世界觀的敘事。本文先探討晚清小說界如何透過文藝脈絡傳播「世界」思潮？接而，本文聚焦晚清小說材料，觀察作者群調動書寫成規、意象、場景等，致使「異域」的表徵從鬼魅化／神秘化的文學傳統，轉而到可由地圖、儀器、制度、科學、政治等繪製測量的新「概念地圖」；接著，本文從「範式轉變」的角度，探討晚清作者群結合地理、冒險、器物等來自不同脈絡的元素，改變傳統飛天遁地的意念飛躍法，促成新「遠遊」範式；最後，本文指出「世界」話語提供了晚清小說作者群對照自我的視角，以「末日記」與「未來記」的極端敘事場景，將「中國」置入「世界」座標，「發現」中國的位置。

關鍵字

晚清；新世界觀；新小說；範式；概念地圖

並列摘要

Literature in the late Qing consisted of a spatial narrative different from the tradition in the acceptance and interpretation of the new world view. Being a part of the time structure, novels of the late Qing were integrated with the contexts of ”world” history, geography, politics, and culture so as to present the narrative with the new world view. This study first discusses how the novels in the late Qing propagated the trend of World through literary contexts. Furthermore, this study focuses on the novel materials in the late Qing to observe the authors transferring the writing rules, images, and scenes into the features of Fantasy World and changing them from a ghostly and mystical literary tradition to a new Conceptual Map drawn and measured by maps, instruments, systems, science, and politics. From the aspect of Paradigm Change, this study then discusses the authors in the late Qing who changed the traditional flight ideas by combining the elements from distinct contexts of geography, adventure, and implements to develop the new paradigm of Far-Distance Travel. Finally, this study points out that World discourses provided the novelists in the late Qing with the viewing angle for self-comparison, and placed China into the World coordinates with the extreme scenes of Doom Day and Coming Day to ”discover” the position of China.