论政治家传主的人设——以《希腊罗马名人传》为例

On the Public Persona of Political Biographee:With Parallel Lives as an Example

人设即人物设定,由三个环节组成:自我塑造、他人塑造和解塑造;在传记写作中,能否克服传主人设所施展的障眼法,力求实现解塑造,是评价传记家的重要标准。本文考察了《希腊罗马名人传》中三位"美德政治家"——大加图、小加图和布鲁图——的人设,分析其从建立到崩塌的过程,以引起传记作者和读者对政治家传主表演性的关注,并质疑普鲁塔克作传的真实可靠性。

Public persona comprises of three aspects and phases:selffashioning,other-fashioning and de-fashioning.In life writing,to deconstruct the fashioning and see through the mask is a requirement for biographers,especially when the biographee is a political figure.This essay analyzes the public persona of three virtuous politicians in Parallel Lives—Cato the Elder,Cato the Younger and Brutus—to draw biographers and readers’attention to political biographee’s histrionicism,and at the same time questions the reliability of Plutarch’s narratives.