传统与个人才能:T.S.艾略特致人类学家的启示

Tradition and the Individual Talent:T.S.Eliot for Anthropologists

T.S.艾略特的“传统”理论在人类学意义的时间概念上,更强调与社会文化的互动关系,即一种具有“历史意识”的传统观,其理论背后是艾略特对于艺术创新的反思与关注。创作主体的创造力在艺术生产中具有重要作用,但要将创新放进历时性的整体之中考察,在传统的历史语境中创造并延续未来。文章结合艾略特的创造力观念,尝试通过爪哇表演的民族志研究来阐明,传统与主体创造力之间不同于结构与能动性的辩证关系。传统可作为一种激活因素而非制约因素推动艺术创新,创作出具有文化基因和集体主义的创造性作品,并给予当代艺术创作深刻的启示和意义。

T.S.Eliot’s“tradition”theory emphasizes the interactive relationship with social culture in terms of the anthropological concept of time,that is,a traditional view with“the historical sense”.Behind its theory is Eliot’s reflection and concern for artistic innovation.The creativity of the creative subject plays an important role in artistic production,but innovation should be examined within a diachronic whole,creating and continuing the future in a traditional historical context.This paper will combine Eliot’s concept of creativity with the ethnographic study of Javanese performance to illustrate that the dialectical relationship between tradition and subjective creativity is different from that between structure and agency.Tradition could act as an activating factor rather than a restricting factor to promote artistic innovation,create creative works with cultural genes and collectivism,and give profound inspiration and significance to contemporary art creation.