“义愤”与“蔑视”——论本·琼森的喜剧快感观

“Righteous Indignation”and“Contempt”: An Analysis of Ben Jonson's View on Comic Pleasure

喜剧在文艺复兴时期的英国饱受批评,其原因之一在于不少喜剧作家与演员将喜剧快感与大笑混为一谈,从而不择手段地以逗笑为目的。作为当时最为杰出的喜剧作家之一,本·琼森不遗余力地澄清这二者的关系以期将喜剧提升为与悲剧具有同等高度的地位。于琼森而言,除道德教化之外,喜剧的另一个目的是激发高尚的快感,而非迎合大众的低级趣味单纯逗笑。通过再现否定性人物愚蠢与恶习的荒诞可笑,喜剧应能引发"义愤"与"蔑视"等情感从而让观众在辨别善恶是非的同时产生快感。琼森的喜剧快感观发展了亚里士多德的喜剧理论,也是他为喜剧所做的有力辩护。

Comedy suffered harsh criticism in Renaissance England, one reason for which lies in that many comedy practitioners mistook laughter for comic pleasure and spared no efforts to provoke laughter. As one of the greatest comedy playwrights, Ben Jonson strove to clarify the relationship between pleasure and laughter in order to raise the status of comedy to that of tragedy. To Jonson, besides moral instruction, another purpose of comedy is to produce noble pleasure rather than merely move laughter. By representing the ＂ridiculous＂, or to be exact, the follies and vices of the negative characters, comedies should enable the audience to distinguish virtue from vice while experiencing ＂righteous indignation＂ and ＂contempt＂. Jonson＇s view on comic pleasure develops Aristotle＇s comic theory and serves as a significant defense for comedy.