- 期刊
汪曾祺小說中的兩個民間世界
Ordinary People and Folk Culture in Wang Zengqi's Fiction
摘要
1940年代，汪曾祺（1920－1997）在沈從文（1902－1988）的提攜下展開創作，建國後十年及文革期間，幾乎停止創作小說，直至1980年代復出文壇，以〈受戒〉、〈大淖記事〉等短篇小說引起廣泛關注，隨後筆耕不輟。縱觀汪氏橫跨五十年的創作，可見其中一脈相承的精神：除了四十年代個別作品，其餘幾乎繼承沈從文、廢名（馮文炳，1901－1967）書寫人性的抒情傳統，並且帶有強烈的「民間意識」。所謂民間意識或民間立場，是指作家傾向書寫民間生活及社會小人物的態度。作家筆下的人物，除了故鄉高郵各式小人物，諸如果販、木匠、畫匠、接生的、孵雞蛋的、釣魚的；還有昆明的大學生、校工、小販、飯店老板，以及北京街頭賣蚯蚓的小販、遛鳥的退休老人、梨園藝人等等。作者感興趣的是這些平凡人看似瑣碎的生活片斷，並從中捕捉他們卑微卻崇高的生活態度，同時亦鞭撻其醜陋不堪的一面。本文將借助民俗學的概念來分析汪曾祺小說呈現的兩個民間世界：其一為溫情脈脈的理想民間，另一個則是滿目瘡痍、骯髒不堪的苦難民間，並略述轉變背後的原由。
並列摘要
As a favourite student of Shen Congwen, Wang Zengqi succeeded the lyrical endeavour of his teacher, and also that of Fei Ming, who had also tried to avoid writing about politics and concentrated instead on the beauties of human nature. Wang had once claimed that he was indeed a Chinese-style lyrical humanist, and probably meant by this that he was adept at describing the lives of ordinary people and exploring their simplicity and beauty. The main characters that appear most frequently in Wang's works are ordinary people living humble lives in the small villages of Jiangsu province, who might be fruit sellers, carpenters, midwives, fishermen, and chicken breeders, people not destined to play prominent roles in the modernization of society; however, their pure hearts and virtuous beliefs remind us of the unspoilt nature of the human being. Although Wang is skilled at describing these ordinary folk and their traditional ways of living, this gentle nostalgia for an idyllic past disappears, however, from his works of the 1990s, which depict an altogether more sinister and disturbing world. This essay borrows techniques from folkloric studies to analyse the two societies that appear in Wang Zengqi's works: one delicate and charming, the other diseased and filthy, and suggests reasons behind this evolution.