埃莉诺与玛丽安的“趣味之争”

Elinor and Marianne's Dispute over Taste

在《理智与情感》一书中,埃莉诺与玛丽安的"趣味之争"折射了18世纪英国情感主义思潮的复杂性,而这种复杂性与英国中产阶级的发展密切相关。一方面,情感与善感是中产阶级提升自身文化地位并使之合法化的重要途径之一;另一方面,情感主义的过度发展却会导致社会失序,不利于中产阶级的稳定发展。有鉴于此,奥斯丁把"心智培育"提到了一个较高的位置,希望以此形成正确的"趣味"判断,并有效调和激情与理性、利己与利他、个人与社会之间的对立。埃莉诺与玛丽安的"趣味"之争看似无足轻重,却折射了18世纪末到19世纪初英国中产阶级修正自身极端自由主义的倾向,以及着眼于整体发展的文化诉求。

In Sense and Sensibility, Elinor and Marianne＇s dispute over taste reflects the complexity of sentimentalism in eighteenth-century England, which was closely related to the rise of the British middle class. On one hand, the eighteenth-century middle class members regarded the quality of sensibility as a way to enhance and legitimize their cultural position. On the other, the excess of sensibility would inevitably result in social disruption and therefore undermine the stability of the middle class. Through the dispute over taste, Austen stresses the importance of ＂cultivation,＂ which helps to cultivate proper taste and effectively reconcile the conflicts between ＂sense＂ and ＂sensibility,＂ self and other, individual and society. Therefore, insignificant as might seem the dispute, it actually reveals the cultural inclination of the late eighteenth and early nine-teenth century British middle class members who sought for a holistic development through rectifying their extreme liberalism.