Abstract: This article attempts to present new interpretations of Lu Xun's “A Madman's Diary” from perspectives of literary history, poetics of science fiction, and rethinking about realism. The article reveals three relations between Lu Xun's story and science fiction: some important clues demonstrate connections between Lu Xun's early translations of science fiction and his later fiction writing; “A Madman's Diary” has a profound impact on Chinese new wave science fiction writers in terms of both the theme and style; rereading “A Madman's Diary” from the perspective of science fiction also helps us reflect on the relations between realism and literary imagination. The counter-intuitive discourse of science fiction dismantles the literary conventions and attempts to rebuild the knowledge about what is real. If we read “A Madman's Diary” as science fiction, the structural alterations happening to this text corresponds to the foregrounding of the question of the virtual when the “ordinary reality in front of eyes” is put into brackets. These alterations also echoed a series of drastic changes happening in the fields of science, aesthetics, and literature against the larger historical backdrop of Lu Xun's time. Through relating new materials to rewriting literary history as well as through outlining a new poetics of narrative fiction, this article aims to inspire new approaches to thinking about literary representation, realism, and episteme.

Key words: Lu Xun, “A Madman's Diary”, translation, Realism, poetics of science fiction, literalness

摘要： 本文从文学史、科幻诗学、再思写实主义的角度,对鲁迅《狂人日记》做出尝试性的新解读。《狂人日记》与科幻小说的关联有三个层面的启示:青年鲁迅的科幻翻译与他后来文学创作之间有一些重要关联;鲁迅《狂人日记》从主题到写作风格上对中国科幻新浪潮发生深刻影响;在科幻的视野中重读《狂人日记》,有助于重新思考写实主义和文学想象力之间的关系。科幻小说反直觉的写作,打破了熟悉的文学常规,试图重建有关真实的知识。如果把《狂人日记》作为科幻小说来阅读,那么这篇小说中发生的叙事结构变化,正对应着将“眼前熟悉的现实”悬置而发出虚拟的问题,也对应着鲁迅生活的时代发生在美学、科学、文学诸多领域的变革。本文旨在从文学史线索和小说诗学的角度,提供考量文学再现、现实、知识之间关系的新思路。

关键词: 鲁迅, 《狂人日记》, 翻译, 写实主义, 科幻诗学, 真实