文学伦理学批评与当代文学的道德批判

Ethical Literary Criticism and Moral Criticism in Contemporary Literature

文学伦理学批评在把握创作自由和社会责任的辩证关系的基础上,强调了作家包括文学批评家的社会道德责任。文学伦理学批评因为看到文学能够帮助人完成择善弃恶而做一个有道德的人的伦理选择过程,所以特别强调文学的教诲作用。中国当代文学在走向世界时却出现了搁置甚至放弃文学的道德批判的恶劣倾向。这种对道德批判的搁置甚至放弃存在三种方式:美学的方式、历史的方式和哲学的方式。文学伦理学批评不仅有力地抵制了当代文坛那些搁置甚至放弃文学的道德批判的倾向,而且促进了当代文学的道德批判的理论自觉,是与中国当代社会转型相适应的。

Though acknowledging the dialectical relationship between freedom and social obligations in literary creation, critics of Ethical Literary Criticism still attach vital importance to the social and moral responsibilities of literary critics. Appreciating the role of literature in helping man tell good from evil so as to make the right ethical selection and live a moral life, Ethical Literary Criticism lays particular stress on the educational function of literature. There has been a disappointing tendency in contemporary Chinese literature to lay aside or even abandon moral criticism, a tendency which exists at aesthetic, historical and philosophical levels. Ethical Literary Criticism not only powerfully resists this tendency, but also arouses the moral awareness of contemporary Chinese writers, and thus should play an important role in the social transformation of contemporary China.