试论罗斯金的文化观

On Ruskin's Views on Culture

认为罗斯金"从艺术批评转向社会批评"的说法失之于简单化,不利于从整体上把握他的文化观。无论是罗斯金发表的艺术批评还是社会批评,其实都受到他总体文化观的统辖。罗斯金的文化观与他所处的时代以及他因此生发的焦虑有关。19世纪的英国,农业文明向工业文明迅速转型,以形形色色的"分离"为特征的异化在现代化进程中愈演愈烈,这是让罗斯金深感焦虑的根本原因。焦虑的背后是他对人类社会的整体性与和谐性的向往,而这种焦虑和向往既体现于他的艺术批评,也体现于他的社会批评,并且促成了两者的高度融合。他跟卡莱尔、阿诺德一样,把批评的矛头对准了由工业革命牵引的、以机械式进步为内涵的文化现象———更确切地说,是"反文化"现象。对于现代文明的焦虑使"文化"这一概念的内涵得以扩充与发展,这里面有着罗斯金不可磨灭的贡献。

The view that John Ruskin ″turned from art criticism to social criticism″ is too reductive and tends to prevent us from approaching his views on culture from a holistic perspective.Ruskin＇s art criticism and social criticism are both governed by his overall thinking on culture,which has to do with the age in which he lived and with the rapid transition from agricultural civilization to industrial civilization that the 19th century Britain witnessed.It is from the height of the overall Culture that Ruskin examined the issue of how human society in its entirety and harmony was undermined by the modern Civilization,and industrialism in particular.The root cause of Ruskin＇s deep anxiety was the ever-worsening alienation,in the process of modernization,characterized by various forms of ″separation″.Behind his anxiety is his aspiration for the integrity and harmony of human society,which is manifest in his art criticism as well as his social criticism and,furthermore,has led to their exquisite fusion and cross-fertilization.Like Thomas Carlyle and Matthew Arnold,Ruskin directed the spearhead of his criticism at the cultural phenomenon or,rather,the ″anti-cultural″ phenomenon of the mechanical progress driven by the Industrial Revolution.It is exactly his anxiety about the superficial and unnatural effects of civilization that has valorized the word ″culture″.In other words,Ruskin has made an outstanding and indelible contribution to the development of the complex ideas of Culture.