现代性转型期青年自我认同危机的共相与殊相——《在轮下》与《沉沦》的跨文化比较研究

The Universal and Unique Aspects of Youth Self-Identity Crises during the Modernity Transition—A Cross-Cultural Comparative Study of Beneath the Wheel and Sinking

摘要: 《在轮下》与《沉沦》分别以德国神学院学生与中国留日青年为典型个案，揭示现代性转型期青年在制度变迁与文化冲突中出现的自我认同危机。文章以G∙H∙米德的符号互动自我理论为主框架，结合文本细读与结构比较，论证两位主人公的危机具有“同构性”：社会加压将“泛化的他人”实体化为持续在场的单一期待，个体将其内化为僵化的“客我”，压制“主我”，导致反思性对话断裂与自我整合失败。与此同时，德中文化语境的差异使危机呈现出“形态殊相”：前者集中于教育体制的理性化规训与个体情感价值的边缘化，后者显现为“救亡叙事”与传统性伦理叠加下的外部歧视与内部自责相互放大。文章意在经由跨文化对读，澄清现代化进程中个体诉求与社会整合之间的互动机制之普遍性与特殊性。

Abstract: Beneath the Wheel and Sinking take as representative cases a German seminary student and a Chinese youth studying in Japan, respectively, revealing the crisis of self-identity among youth during the transitional period of modernity, shaped by institutional transformation and cultural conflict. This paper adopts G. H. Mead’s theory of the symbolic interactionist self as its primary framework, combining close textual analysis with structural comparison to argue that the crises experienced by both protagonists exhibit “isomorphism”: societal pressure transforms the “generalized other” into a singular, persistently present expectation, which individuals internalize as a rigid “me,” thereby suppressing the “I” and leading to the breakdown of reflective dialogue and failure in self-integration. At the same time, cultural differences between Germany and China result in “distinctive manifestations” of this crisis: in Germany, it centers on the rationalization of educational institutions and the marginalization of individual emotional values; in China, it emerges as an amplification of external discrimination and internal self-blame under the overlapping pressures of “salvation narratives” and traditional sexual ethics. Through cross-cultural reading, the study aims to clarify both the universality and specificity of mechanisms governing the interaction between individual aspirations and social integration during modernization.