皮埃尔·诺拉的“记忆之场”与国族认知——兼论《普鲁斯特之<追忆似水年华>》

20世纪80年代后，学界的“记忆”研究逐渐兴起。法国当代史学名家皮耶?诺哈主编的多卷本《记忆之场》引领了这一潮流，将之聚焦于富有象征意味的“记忆之场”上。诺哈区分了“记忆”与“历史”，指出了“记忆”的“场所”具有的物质性、功能性与象征性，并以庞大的篇幅建构了法国国族自我认知的社会史。其中，孔帕尼翁的《普鲁斯特之<追忆似水年华>》将普鲁斯特及其作品视为一种“记忆之场”，探讨了“泛普鲁斯特学”、成为“法国伟大作家”的普鲁斯特及其成功的社会基础，将“普鲁斯特”这类“建构之象征物”纳入到“法国之所以成为法国”的研究中，表明其保证了一种集体性的、文化与身份认同的再生产；该文也代表了作品研究的另一种进入方式。

Nora's Realms of Memory and National Identity,and Marcel Proust's Rememberance of Things Past

Since 1980s, memory has become a new subject which draws heated discussion in history studies. The French historian Pierre Nora forges the concept of Realms of Memory in his three-volume collection Les Lieux de Mémoire, focusing on locating the material and non-material “sites” of collective memory of French national identity. Nora distinguishes “memory” from “history” and demonstrates that lieux de mémoire, a kind of symbolic reality, are in three senses: material, symbolic and functional. “à la recherche du temps perdu de Marcel Proust”, an essay written by Antoine Compagnon in this magnum opus, explores the works and reception of the novelist Marcel Proust, including “para-Proustologie”, the process of Proust’s raising to “the great French writer” and its coincidence with the coming of the society of leisure. Regarding Proust and his Remembrance of Things Past as the “constructed symbols”, Compagnon shows that they ensure the continuance of the national culture that gives the group its identity in their own way. Also, the essay represents an excellent example of an alternative method of the analysis of literary works.