趣味即文化：阿诺德对文学批评的贡献

外国文学研究 ›› 2021, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (5): 43-54.

趣味即文化：阿诺德对文学批评的贡献

殷企平

出版日期:2021-10-25 发布日期:2021-10-28
作者简介:殷企平,杭州师范大学外语学院教授,主要从事英国文学和西方文论研究。
基金资助:
国家社科基金一般项目“英国文学中的‘趣味'理论变迁研究”（16BWW011）; 浙江省哲学社会科学重点研究基地“文艺批评研究院”资助（wypps2020002）

Taste as Culture: Mathew Arnold's Contribution to Literary Criticism

Yin Qiping

Online:2021-10-25 Published:2021-10-28
About author:Yin Qiping is a professor at the School of Foreign Languages, Hangzhou Normal University (Hangzhou 310036, China). His primary research areas are English literature and Western literary theories. Email: qipyin@hotmail.com
Supported by:
“A Study on Theoretical Changes in ‘Taste' in British Literature” (16BWW011) sponsored by the National Social Science Fund of China and by “The Academy of Literary or Art Criticism,” a key research base for philosophy and social sciences in Zhejiang Province (wypps2020002).

摘要/Abstract

内容摘要： 在贬损阿诺德的声音中,有两种观点最具影响：1.阿诺德是精英主义者,他的文学批评思想只为统治阶级服务;2.与其说阿诺德是批评家,不如说他是文学批评的宣传家。我们有必要多角度地从事阿诺德研究,进而说明上述观点为何有失偏颇。欲熟谙阿诺德文学批评的精髓,须着眼于作为他文化蓝图中枢的趣味观。他主张建立一个“趣味中心”,主张“集体标准和理想”,这不仅是为了防止个人趣味的盲目性和武断性,更是为了防止整个国家妄自尊大。我们可以借用阿甘本的“完美点”一说,来形容阿诺德的批评实践。理由是阿诺德虽然没有用这一概念表述他的标准,但实际上正是依循是否具备“完美点”来评价文学作品,从而展示“完美点”所体现的趣味。

关键词: 趣味, 文化, 权威, 完美点, 文学批评, 阿诺德

Abstract: Of all the voices that denigrate Mathew Arnold, two are most influential: a) the claim that Arnold was an elitist, whose views on literary criticism merely served the interests of the ruling classes; b) the assumption that Arnold was rather a propagandist for literary criticism than a critic. We need to conduct the studies of Arnold from multiple perspectives and thereby pinpoint the erroneousness of the fore-going views. We need to proceed from taste, which constitutes the pivotal part of Arnold's cultural blueprint, if we want to thoroughly understand the quintessence of his literary criticism. Arnold called for “the centre of taste” and advocated “collective standards and ideals” with the aim not only to prevent individual taste from becoming blind and arbitrary, but also to guard the whole state against growing arrogant. It seems appropriate for us to describe Arnold's critical practice with a term from Giorgio Agamben, namely “the point de perfection”. The reason is that although Arnold did not use this term to indicate his standards, he actually evaluated literary works based on whether or not they reached “the point de perfection”, thus revealing the taste as embodied in it.

Key words: taste, culture, authority, the point de perfection, literary criticism, Arnold

殷企平. 趣味即文化：阿诺德对文学批评的贡献[J]. 外国文学研究, 2021, 43(5): 43-54.

Yin Qiping. Taste as Culture: Mathew Arnold's Contribution to Literary Criticism[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2021, 43(5): 43-54.

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