哈罗德·布鲁姆教授访谈录(英文)

An Interview with Professor Harold Bloom

哈罗德·布鲁姆教授是耶鲁大学具有里程碑意义和传奇色彩的文学批评家,一个诗歌批评界的一个不可回避的名字,是他那一代人或几代人中最猛烈的、也无疑是最多产的批评家之一。本刊特约记者徐静于2006年5月对布鲁姆教授进行了采访。本次访谈的重点是布鲁姆在20世纪70年代以《影响的焦虑》、《误读的地图》、《卡巴拉与批评》、《诗歌与压抑》四部曲的形式相继提出的、具有爆炸性的“诗歌理论”。布鲁姆认为“影响的焦虑”是他对文学批评最重要的贡献,并用舞蹈这一形象的比喻来解释了他那著名的却常常令人困惑的关于“误读”的“六个定量”。在访谈中,布鲁姆还追溯了几位对爱米莉·狄金森颇有影响的前辈诗人,并简单比较了惠特曼和史蒂文斯。布鲁姆将他的批评生涯概括为三个阶段浪漫主义诗歌的复兴者,诗歌理论家以及面向大众的批评者。在新批评的余辉中,布鲁姆以对英国浪漫主义诗歌的批评开始了其批评生涯。20世纪70年代布鲁姆提出了他那爆炸性的、以四部曲的形式相继问世的“诗歌理论”。进入80年代后,布鲁姆的批评不再艰深难懂,他希望能拥有更广大的读者群。他为普通大众所写的文学批评及“宗教批评”(布鲁姆语)使得哈罗德·布鲁姆成为了美国以及全世界的一个家喻户晓的名字。目前,76岁的布鲁姆正全力写作《影响的解剖》一书,将于2008年由普林斯顿大学出版社出版。

Harold Bloom, a monumental and legendary figure of literary criticism at Yale University, a name that cannot be avoided in poetry criticism, is one of the strongest and definitely the most prolific critics of his generation or of several past generations. Professor Xu Jing, correspondent of Foreign Literature Studies, interviewed Professor Bloom in May 2006. This interview focuses on his Theory of Poetry that was explosively brought forth in the 1970s by his famous tetralogy： The Anxiety of Influence, A Map of Misreading, Kabbalah and Criticism, and Poetry and Repression. Bloom regards his theory of ＂The Anxiety of Influence＂ as his most important contribution to literary criticism, and uses ＂dancing＂ to explain his famous yet baffling six rations of ＂misprision. ＂ Always preoccupied with his own theory, Bloom here again traces the precursors of Emily Dickinson and makes a brief comparison between Walt Whitman and Wallace Stevens. Looking back to his past, Bloom gives a summation of his life＇ s trajectory as a critic ： a revivalist of Romantic poetry, a theoretician of poetry, and a critic for the general public. Bloom began his ca- reer as a critic of British Romantic literature in the afterglow of the New Criticism. In the 1970s, Bloom brought forth his explosive ＂Theory of Poetry＂ in the tetralogy publised in very quick succession in the 1970s. Since the 1980s, Bloom has become less technical and hopes to reach a wider readership. His literary criticism and what he calls his ＂criticism of religion＂ for the general public have made Harold Bloom a household name in America as well as in the world. At present, the 76-year-old Harold Bloom is intensely engaged in the writing of what he hopes to be his masterpiece, The Anatomy of Influence, which is to be published in 2008 by Princeton University Press.