关键词: 自我, 物质, 反讽, 中国故事, 宇文所安

Abstract: The American sinologist Stephen Owen, from the perspective as the other, has scrutinized Chinese classics and infused a strong sense of self-awareness and identity anxiety into his understanding of Chinese classics, characters in those texts, and their authors, which enriches the image of the character, distinguishes the ethical stand of the author, and endows his interpretation with distinct psychological features. From the material world presented in the text, he analyzed the possession and behavior (such as naming private properties and composing a poem to a given tune in a family feast) of the poets in the Tang and Song dynasties, revealing the moral taboo behind textual symbols and offering the interpretation of great historical and cultural significance. In the contrast of poetry and irony, the Chinese drama, temporarily away from the role as an entertainment and a pastime, was given the aesthetic value of irony. It is in this sense that Owen's unique interpretative perspective has rectified the pattern of Darwinian evolution applied in the literary history. The perspective of Stephen Owen for interpreting Chinese stories is summarized as highlighting self-awareness and identity anxiety, focusing on the material world and moral taboo presented in the text, and emphasizing the contrast between poetry and irony. It is his unique interpretative perspective and discursive construction that establishes the dialogue between the text and the context, the character and the environment, as well as the history and the present.

Key words: self, material, irony, Chinese stories, Stephen Owen