新中国成立后产生了四次关于文学本质的论争。第一次是围绕“文学是人学”观点的论争,第二次是刘再复发起的“文学主体性”论争,外在于学术研究的政治与文化力量主导了这两次论争。第三次是针对“文学审美意识形态”理论的论争,此时学术独立性得到尊重,人文学科与自然科学思维逻辑的差异却被忽视。第四次是陶东风、南帆等引发的“反本质主义”论争,对人文学科逻辑的反思于论争中展开,真理性与建构性作为人文学科的两个重要特征得到重视与肯定。整体上,四次文学本质论争展现出中国学者对文论研究学科定位的思考:由外部主导走向学术自立,由文理不分走向人文学科逻辑反思。这种思考是重构文论话语体系的前设,也是中西学术交流的一个重要窗口。 After the founding of New China, there were four debates on the nature of literature. The first is a controversy around the view that literature is humanity and the second is the controversy over “literary subjectivity” initiated by Liu Zaifu. The political and cultural forces external to academic research dominate these two debates . The third is a controversy against the theory of literary aesthetic ideology, in which academic independence is respected and the differences between the humanities and the logic of natural science are ignored. The fourth is the “anti-essentialism” controversy triggered by Tao Dongfeng and Nan Fan. The rethinking of the logic of the humanities disciplines unfolds in the debate. Truth and constructivism are valued and affirmed as two important characteristics of the humanities. On the whole, the four debates on the nature of literature show the Chinese scholars’ reflections on the orientation of the study of the theory of literary theory: from external domination to academic self-reliance, from liberal arts to the logical reflection of the humanities. This kind of thinking is the precondition of reconstructing the discourse of literary theory and an important window of academic exchanges between China and the West.