Thoughts and footprints : on the environmental narrative and atmosphere in Xiao Hong's works = 思想與足跡 : 論蕭紅作品的環境叙事與氣氛

Abstract

Xiao Hong (1911-1942) is a prominent modern Chinese writer of nativist literature. While research on her has advanced to the fourth stage, it still faces modernity’s binary challenges, such as political versus artistic, or realism versus lyricism. This thesis proposes a new theoretical framework based on environmental aesthetics, which draws on environmental aesthetics and the significant symbols of soil and water in Chinese classical and modern image systems, yielding the concepts of “soil atmosphere” and “water atmosphere” as an innovative approach to break through the above binaries. Using this paradigm, this study integrates Xiao Hong’s exile experience and ideological development features, examining the three stages of her nativist works and the overall trajectory from a “soil atmosphere” to a “water atmosphere” writing. It observes that her writing during the first stage—the soil atmosphere stage—is characterized by left-wing and nationalist ideas, highlight primarily the suffering of the nation. Through contrasting spatial settings, her works depict the invasion of an external capitalist economy, the erosion of internal feudal ethical morals, and Japan’s aggressiveness, which leads to the complete collapse of rural order—the “life and death field” in her term. The symbolic system produced by animal analogies serves as the intrinsic logic of her works throughout this time period. The second stage marks the transformation from a “soil atmosphere” to a “water atmosphere,” represented by Xiao Hong’s writings about the resistance war. The distinctness of her works at this period resides in the fact that she actively reflected on the war situation and participated in the anti-Japanese war through her nativist writing. At the same time, she also reflected on issues such as romanticism and heroism in anti-Japanese literature, prompting her to pay more attention to individual survival difficulties, the depth of human nature, and certain philosophical issues. Under such circumstances, Xiao Hong proposed the concept of “soul writing” and creatively employed the notion of “mobile homeland” to broaden the understanding of nativist literature, reflecting the impact of a nationwide mass exodus on people. Space in works from this period carries multiple connotations, including emotions, spirituality, philosophy, and nature. In the “water atmosphere” works of the third stage, Xiao Hong recalled traumatic memories through spatial reconstruction and sought a way to heal. Her trauma-memory narrative is a complicated one of personal and collective trauma that may be divided into two levels: “homelessness” and “speechlessness among the lower classes.” Xiao Hong’s nativist writing confronts and expresses national trauma, replacing the quest for “the truth of reality” and “the beauty of dreams” with the “truth of existence,” indicating the possibility of a third form of nativist literature. 蕭紅（1911-1942）是中國現代文學史中重要的鄉土文學作家。蕭紅研究目前已進入第 四階段，但仍面臨政治性與藝術性、寫實與抒情等現代性的二元性困境。本文結合以環境美 學為基礎的氣氛美學，以及土與水分別作為中國古典和現代意象系統中的重要符號，形成「土 氣氣氛」與「水氣氣氛」的概念，作為突破上述二元性研究的創新性理論框架。據此框架， 融匯蕭紅的流亡足跡與思想發展特徵，論述其鄉土文學作品的三階段，與從土氣氣氛向水氣 氣氛轉化的總體表現。論文指出，第一階段土氣氣氛階段，左翼思想與國家民族思想主導其 創作，作品體現民族的苦難。透過對立的空間設置，她描繪外部資本主義經濟入侵、內部封 建倫理道德腐蝕及日本侵略，使農村秩序全面崩潰，從而形成了「生死場」。動物隱喻形成 的象徵系統為此時期文本的內在邏輯。第二階段是土氣氣氛向水氣氣氛的過渡，即蕭紅對抗 戰的書寫。這時期作品的特殊性在於，蕭紅一方面通過鄉土書寫積極反映戰況、參與抗戰事 業，另一方面對抗戰文學中的浪漫主義和英雄主義等問題的反思，促使其更關注個體的生存 困境、人性深度及一些哲學問題。在此情況下，蕭紅提出「靈魂」的寫作觀，創造性地使用 「移動的鄉土」概念，將鄉土擴大化理解，反映出全國性大流亡這一歷史事件對人的影響。 空間在這時期的作品中承載著包括情感、精神、哲學與自然四方面的多重意義。第三階段的 水氣氣氛作品中，蕭紅則通過空間重構創傷記憶，找尋療癒之路。其創傷-記憶敘事是個人 創傷與集體創傷的複合體驗敘事，可分「無家可歸」與「底層人失語症」兩個層次。通過對 民族創傷的正視與表現，蕭紅的鄉土文學以「存在的真」取代了對「現實的真」和「夢幻的 美」的追求，從而展現出第三種鄉土文學的可能。