电磁电报与象征主义

于雷

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文艺理论研究 ›› 2023, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (5) : 194-204.

专题：媒介技术诗学研究

电磁电报与象征主义

于雷

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Magnetic Telegraph and Symbolism: A Study of the Media-Tech Poetics of 19^th-Century American Symbolist Fiction

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摘要

电磁电报作为19世纪初的“新媒介”为美国象征主义文学文化开创了独特的历史时空语境,然而象征主义与电磁电报在诗学意义上的同构性却始终游离于相关研究视野之外。象征主义诗歌和侦探小说在麦克卢汉那里意味着电磁电报时代精神召唤之下的文类新产品,但电磁电报赖以发生的技术文化条件恰恰源自象征主义那一古老的认识论本身,尤其是它与19世纪上半叶电磁现象的揭示、埃及象形文字考古新发现以及美国清教主义思维范式之间发生的某种机缘巧合的碰撞。19世纪美国的三位象征主义小说巨擘爱伦·坡、霍桑和麦尔维尔恰恰以其独特的叙述策略成了上述同构性的最具代表性的见证者:他们不仅从电磁电报的信息加密技术中汲取灵感,更在元语言意义上围绕电磁电报的象征主义运作逻辑,演绎出一种从模型化到失真化再到自反化的逐步推进的媒介技术诗学。

Abstract

Magnetic telegraph, a novel “new media” technology in the early 19^th century, created a unique historical chronotope that profoundly influenced American symbolic literary culture. However, there has been a persistent oversight regarding the poetic connection between symbolism and the magnetic telegraph. Symbolist poetry and detective stories, as observed by Marshall McLuhan, exemplified the emergence of new genres inspired by the spirit of the age of the magnetic telegraph. Yet, it is essential to recognize that the techno-cultural conditions that gave birth to the invention of the magnetic telegraph stemmed from the ancient epistemology of symbolism itself. This connection involved the providential convergence of symbolist epistemology, the discovery of electromagnetism in the early 19^th century, archaeological revelations of Egyptian hieroglyphics, and the spiritual mindset of American puritanism. This study focuses on three symbolist figures — Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville-who bear witness to the age of the magnetic telegraph through their narrative strategies. Notably, these authors were not only inspired by the encryption techniques of the magnetic telegraph, but they also harnessed its symbolist principles in a metalinguistic sense, fostering a media-tech poetics that evolved from modelization to anamorphization and self-reflexivization.

导出引用

于雷. 电磁电报与象征主义[J]. 文艺理论研究, 2023, 43(5): 194-204

Magnetic Telegraph and Symbolism: A Study of the Media-Tech Poetics of 19^th-Century American Symbolist Fiction[J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2023, 43(5): 194-204

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