希利斯·米勒论意象--作为“治疗”的批评

Hillis Miller on Image——Criticism as “Cure”

希利斯·米勒作为至今仍活跃在批评文坛上的解构主义代表人物,其理论轨迹诠释了解构主义修辞批评自上世纪七十年代至今的漫长理论历程。本文借米勒同传统人文主义批评家M.H.艾布拉姆斯的论争,回返至米勒早年几篇具有方法论性质的论文,以重新考察解构主义的意象批评为何远不是花样迭出的形式创新,而具备不可削减的伦理维度;解构主义批评家消融文学与批评边界的尝试,也不单是批评的自我辩护,而成为对文学意象的乌托邦力量的重建,是米勒所言的"作为治疗的批评"。这也解答了为何在当代批评的"伦理转向"中,解构主义不仅没有沦为明日黄花,反而提供了形式批评与伦理批评联合的新范式。

Hillis Miller, as the representative figure holding on to the basic deconstructive methodology in the sphere of literary criticism all the way, his theoretical career embodies the long theoretical journey of deconstruction from the 1970s up to now. This article delineates his debates with the traditional humanistic literary critic M.H. Abrams and traces back several early essays of Miller, in order to rethink why deconstruction has an irreducible ethical dimension and by no means degrades to a kind of cunning theoretical innovation. Meanwhile, I show that the deconstructionists＇ efforts of melting the boundaries between literature and criticism should be not only regarded as a self-defend of criticism, but also as a re-establishment of the utopian force of literary images, which is called ＂Criticism as a cure＂ by Miller. It explains the reason why the methodologies of deconstrnction are in no means outdated, but on the contrary offer the potentials to enact a new paradigm of uniting the formalistic criticism and ethical criticism, which is quite obvious in the ＂ethical turn＂ of contemporary criticism.