钱钟书与中国现代批评的困境

Qian Zhongshu and the Dilemma of Modern Chinese Criticism

作为批评家的钱钟书,对中国现代文学却一向甚少评说。但从早年对《落日颂》的批评,到《围城》等作中的"小说中之谈艺",再到20世纪50年代围绕卢弼诗评价的书信往来,以及晚年奖掖后人时的"语多夸饰",亦可见出一种曲折的批评心理和批评策略。中国现当代的文学批评,常摇摆于美学原则与某些特定的伦理要求之间,自其摆脱简单的比附政治要求之后,各式各样的人情困扰渐成陷于困境的重要因素之一。钱钟书始终是现代中国坚持将美学原则放在第一位的人,虽然亦不免屈于语境、多有曲折,但他在各种场合中对"谈艺之公论"的坚持,对当代批评如何突出人情之围,有效维护批评标准的美学有效性与绝对性,至今仍具有深刻的启示意义。

As a critic,Qian Zhongshu rarely remarked on modern Chinese literature.However,his critical mentalities and strategies were still exposed when he assessed Cao Baohua's collection of poems Ode to the Setting Sunin his early years,carried out"art criticism in story-telling"in such works like Fortress Besieged,exchanged opinions on Lu Bi's poems via letters in the 1950 sand "overstated"some newcomers' achievements in his old age.Modern and contemporary Chinese literary criticism has always been swayed by the specific ethical and aesthetic principles.After having been away from the apparent adjustment to political demands,the concern for kinds of interpersonal relations has become one of the vital factors of trapping it.Although it is undeniable that he at times succumbed to the specific contexts and made some judgments more flexibly or even against his authentic will,Qian Zhongshu attached more importance to the aesthetic principles of criticism all the time and stuck to"the fairness of art criticism"on various occasions,which offered us an insight into how the contemporary critics can free from the excessive concern for interpersonal relations and guarantee the aesthetic effectiveness and absolutism of criteria in criticism.