今年一月号《读书》上两篇涉及西方当代理论及中国学者对西方理论如何回应的文章,引起我很大兴趣,读过之后也使我产生一些自己的想法。一篇是张宽介绍美国有关多元文化论争的《离经叛道》,另一篇是王一川、张法、陶东风、张荣翼、孙津等五人对话式的《边缘·中心·东方·西方》。我自己对西方理论,包括文学批评理论和范围较广的哲学和文化理论,一直有浓厚的兴趣。十年以前,我曾在北京大学教过英国文学和西方文学批评,并曾在《读书》上连续介绍过二十世纪西方的各派文论,这些文章后来还集为一小册,收在三 I was very interested in reading two articles on “Reading” in January this year, which dealt with contemporary Western theories and how Chinese scholars responded to Western theories. After reading them, they also gave me some ideas. One is Zhang Wanku’s “deviance” about the multiculturalism in the United States, and the other is the “fringe center, the east and the west” with five conversations by Wang Yichuan, Zhang Fa, Tao Dongfeng, Zhang Rongyi and Sun Jin. I have always had a strong interest in western theories, including literary criticism theories and a wide range of philosophical and cultural theories. Ten years ago, I had taught English literature and western literary criticism at Peking University. I had successively introduced western literary theories of the twentieth century in “Reading,” which were later collected as a book three