马修·阿诺德的特殊文化际遇

On the Special Cultural Experience of Matthew Arnold

马修·阿诺德虽为英国维多利亚时期的知名批评家,但在当时的批评界他几乎单枪匹马。这不仅是因为整个社会物质至上的风气及由此产生自满意识,使社会各界对阿诺德的批评与忠告置若罔闻;还在于对社会各阶层的批评使他树敌过多,在文化批评阵地中难觅知音;也由于当时是文化批评的真空期。这些要素共同造就了阿诺德特殊的文化际遇。

Although Matthew Arnold was a famous critic in the British Victorian Age, he was nearly isolated in the circle of criticism at that time. It is not only the materialistic morality in the whole society as well as the self-satisfied consciousness arising therefrom made all walks of life pay no attention to his criticism and advice but also he made too many enemies and found no boom friends in the field of cultural criticism in that vacuum period. And all those factors jointly lead to his special cultural experience.