Dazhong Daily reporter Li Mengxin Zhu Ziyu
Strange, uncertain, unknown, the resulting offense and alienation, is a barrier erected by the classic itself, in contrast, reading online novels, playing games, may be more in line with most people's interests, but also more likely to make people feel happy -
How can you really get into the classics?
Recently, Professor Zhang Lijun, doctoral supervisor of Jinan University, launched two new books, "Literary Classic Education of Dialogue" and "Realism and The Frontiers of Contemporary Literature", which recorded the content of classic reading and dialogue with undergraduate, master's and doctoral students in his 15 years of teaching at the university. At the new book sharing conference held recently, the topic of how to read literary classics in the university classroom was mentioned again.
In the Internet era, when reading is facing an impact and classics are facing challenges, how should we treat and read classics? Several experts and scholars gave their own thoughts on the way and value of classical texts are read.
Cultivating a poetic "literati heart"
The Italian writer Calvino, in Why Read the Classics, has fourteen definitions of the classics, one of which is that "classic works are books that have a certain special effect, either they imprint our imagination in the way of forgetting themselves, or they disguise themselves as individual or collective unconsciouses hidden in deep memory." ”
In fact, due to the change of times, everyone's understanding of the classics and even aesthetic tastes will change, after all, "a thousand readers have a thousand Hamlets". Luo Gang, a professor at the Department of Chinese of East China Normal University, has given an example in public, and the general scale of "literary works selection" is derived from the orientation of literary history and literary value, the former is a particularly important work in literary history, and the latter pays attention to the artistic value of the work itself. "For example, Hu Shi's 'Attempt Collection', which for the first time used the vernacular to write new poems, is a work that cannot be circumvented in the history of literature, but the poems in it cannot represent the high level of new Chinese vernacular poetry."
Zhang Lijun provides another dimension of thinking direction, in his view, university literature education is classic education. "The literary works told in university classrooms are recognized classics that have been preserved by human beings after thousands of years of continuous washing and screening." He said that like the charm of the language and text presented in Lu Xun's works, the artistic interest contained in them, and the richness of ideas, every time they are read, they will have a new experience, and works like this that can withstand re-reading today can be called classics.
For university students, it is necessary to build the ability to read, appreciate, interpret and evaluate literary works. Therefore, Zhang Lijun believes that all these need to have a minimum and basic knowledge system for ancient and modern Chinese and foreign literature, starting from reading classic literary masterpieces and understanding writers and their artistic styles.
From this point of view, reading literary classics is like an incision, in addition to cultivating the individual's elegant and noble aesthetic taste, aesthetic character and aesthetic perception, Zhang Lijun said: "More importantly, to cultivate a person's ability to understand literature, a poetic understanding of the world's everything, social life, and daily life." The cultivation of this poetic and gentle "literati heart" is something that cannot be measured by scores and grades in universities, and it is a deep embodiment of the success of literary education.
Classic reading, many challenges
"Everyone has a fixed mode of acceptance, and classic means challenging this model, it is an offensive breakthrough, so many people are not easy to accept the classic." In contrast, reading online novels and playing games may be more in line with most people's interests and more likely to make people feel happy. Writer Wei Xin said.
Classics are not easy to read, not easy to read. Nor is reading the classics a purely hedonistic affair. The popular means familiarity, the pleasure brought about by familiarity, while the classic means strangeness, uncertainty, the unknown, and the resulting offense and alienation. This is a barrier erected by the classics themselves. "In the face of the classics, you can't read them with interest alone." Wei Xin said.
Zhang Lijun confirms this: In the university classroom, students with the prescribed task of approaching these unfamiliar texts will still be some distance between approaching and entering. Zhang Lijun talked about her strong feelings in teaching and teaching over the years, "Many students have read a lot of literary history and understand the concepts very well, but the classic texts have read very little, indicating that they are for the purpose of completing their coursework and have not really entered the classics." ”
Cong Xinqiang, a professor at Shandong University, opened a course entitled "Introduction to Mo Yan" in the College of Literature, and in addition to the daily course, there are also reading clubs organized under the class. He found that even students in Chinese departments had some problems with reading. In addition to the lack of reading, most students do not have enough depth of reading, often staying on some existing value judgments in literary history, constrained by the existing framework, and it is difficult to read their own things.
Now, under the impact of the Internet, classic reading is more challenged. Pictures, videos, sounds, preempt the attention of the senses, all kinds of content more and more pay attention to the frequent stimulation in a short period of time, in this case, the mere reading of this act has become a threshold. "Can't see things that are long-winded" has become a reading disorder formed by many people.
At a time when attention is becoming scarce, people are more willing to accept the direct "feeding" of others. Previously, some scholars have noticed that in order to attract the attention of the audience, some condensed interpretations are quite popular, such as watching a movie in three minutes and reading a famous book in five minutes... Looking at the Internet channels, the so-called famous masters appreciate and interpret, everywhere, without thinking to get a "standard answer".
When access to information becomes the primary purpose, it is a hidden danger for classic reading. "Now all kinds of information are coming in fragments, even if you have not read the classic text, you can say a rough idea, but this fragmented reading is doomed to the understanding of the classic text is also fragmented." Cong Xinqiang said in an interview with reporters that the result of this fragmented reading is that it seems that a person's reading scope seems to be very wide, and the knowledge scope seems to be very wide, but in fact, it is the accumulation of a lot of invalid information, which only stays at the level of understanding, cannot go deep into the level of meaning, and cannot feel the touch that literature brings to people's souls.
Cultivating reading sensitivity is the first step
How can we walk into the classics today?
In Cong Xinqiang's view, reading literary classics "is the most basic and most important, we must start from the original canon itself, and not be affected by too many established concepts and existing research in literary history." After reading it once, form your own understanding of the text, on this basis, you can refer to relevant research, find the distance between the two, and then read further, so as to draw your own judgment. ”
Moreover, "it is not enough to read the classics only once. Nowadays, many students call reading, that is, only reading once. But reading is not the same as reading. Read effectively, at least three or five times. Cong Xinqiang said. He takes the novel as an example, the first time he reads it may be to understand the storyline, the second time can more clearly sort out the relationship between the characters, understand the encounters and fates of the characters, after repeated reading, the universal life encounters and human destiny behind the novel and the deeper overall care about culture and civilization can be experienced.
Everyone's perception of literature is different. Zhang Lijun advocates a dialogue method that combines perceptual reading and rational thinking based on the unique life experience of individuals, based on text perusal, in order to stimulate students' exposition of classic literary texts. He believes that such dialogue is true, sincere, and life-warming. "It is important to cultivate reading sensitivity, and it can be said that it is the first step into literary texts." Zhang Lijun said.
With this in mind, in the classroom, he opened the classic reading in the form of dialogue. Because dialogue is mutually inspiring, it is easy to find problems only in dialogue. For literature, there is never only one answer, and in the face of the same text, different thinking is showing the charm of literary classics.
For example, when reading and analyzing the book "Camel Xiangzi", some students did not agree with the generally accepted statement that Xiangzi's tragic fate was the failure of the struggle mode, but from the more realistic perspective of material blows, they believed that "material is linked to his future good life, and it is something that brings Shoko a sense of solidity and achievement... The material blows bring Shoko into confusion, nothingness, and distrust of life ideals... From the accumulation of material joy to the sense of disillusionment in life caused by being looted for no reason, it is the beginning of Shoko's loss of her ideals in life..." Zhang Lijun believes that if these different voices can be heard, then the meaning of reading the classics may be partially achieved.