弗莱论文学与终极关怀

Northrop Frye on Literature and Ultimate Concern

在过去的二十年中,西方的弗莱研究指出,弗莱庞大思想框架的总体特征是其宗教性。弗莱的学生罗伯特·邓涵(Robert D.Denham)表示:“在过去的二十年里,我有一种越来越强烈的直觉,弗莱所构建的那个超级框架的核心特征是它的宗教基础。在我研究弗莱的笔记,特别是他晚期的笔记的十年中,这种直觉得到了强化。”①早在1966年.

Northrop Frye claims that religion and literature are essentially the same phenomena despite the significant difference between religion and literature in popular understanding.Terry Eagleton concludes that Frye sees literature as a displaced version of religion.Based on William James’definition of personal religion and Frye’s reconstruction of the ontology of literature,this article examines the theoretical basis of Frye’s claim regarding the identity of religion and literature and argues that by dragging religion“down”through equating religion with personal religious experience and elevating literature through reconstructing the social function of literature,Frye shows the possibility of bringing the two into the existential domain of the“ultimate concern”of the human spirit,and thereby comparing them.Frye’s assertions on the nature of the Bible were grounded in this concept of literary and religious identity.The challenges brought to the traditional Christian faith by the modern study of the historical authenticity of the Bible and the disintegration of the historical text do not,for Frye,mean the loss of religious significance of the Bible.Christian faith absolutely can and should be based on the Bible as literature instead of historical records.Therefore,Frye’s statements on the literary nature of the Bible do not so much result from the scientific study of the Biblical texts as from the need to construct a radical protestant theology based on the Bible.