启蒙困境与审美救赎——《一个迷途的女人》的审美现代性

《一个迷途的女人》是薇拉·凯瑟的地域小说之一。小说以福瑞斯特上尉家的沼泽地被破坏为叙述主线,探讨急骤发展的启蒙现代性导致花园文明的消逝并催生现代人自我异化的现象。对此,凯瑟深感惋惜,但并不悲观。她寄希望于艺术作品承担的审美救赎责任,呼吁＂复魅＂自然,复兴花园文明,弥补启蒙现代性的过失,实现人、自然和社会的和谐发展。这些理念不仅反拨了评论家将凯瑟界定为＂保守主义者＂和＂逃避主义者＂的论断,还反观出作家以一种现世的写作态度介入和批判自身所处时代的社会现实。

The Lost Lady is one of Willa Cather＇s regional novels. The novel, with the devastation of Major Forrest＇s marsh as its narrative thread, probes into the disappearance of garden civilization and modern men＇s self-alienation caused by the overstretched development of enlightenment modernity for which Cather expresses deep sympathies. But Cather does not feel pessimistic about these phenomena. She hopes that the artistic works can shoulder the responsibility of aesthetic salvation and call for the ＂re-enchantment＂ of nature and the rejuvenation of garden civilization, so as to rectify the faults of enlightenment modernity and bring to fruition the balanced development among human beings, nature and society. These ideas not only disprove the assertion of critics that Cather is a ＂conservationist＂ and ＂escapist＂, but also reflect that Cather, with a worldly writing attitude, engages and criticizes the social realities in her times.