崇高诗学的传承与流变——布鲁姆《神魔知道:文学的伟大与美国式崇高》评述

A Review of Harold Bloom’s The Daemon Knows:Literary Greatness and the American Sublime

在新作《神魔知道:文学的伟大与美国式崇高》中,哈罗德·布鲁姆通过解读六组作家的重要作品,梳理了从爱默生开始延续到哈特·克莱恩的美国崇高文学传统的原则与特质,揭示了十二位作家对崇高体验的执着与反思,并对美国式崇高与“神魔”内驱力的内涵,美国式崇高的文学、哲思及宗教之源,崇高诗学的诗性表现与反讽特点等问题进行了“个人化的、充满激情的”阐释与剖析,充分展示了其“浪漫主义复兴派”的一贯立场,对于深入理解浪漫主义传统及其在美国现当代文学的传承与发展有着积极的指导作用。

In The Daemon Knows:Literary Greatness and the American Sublime,Harold Bloom clarifies the principle and strains of the American Sublime in literary tradition which originated with Ralph Waldo Emerson and went on to Hart Crane.In reading the major works by six pairs of great American writers,Bloom exemplifies their reflective obsession with the sublime experience and offers a "personal and passionate" elaboration on questions like what is meant by the American sublime or the daemonic drive,where it is to find its literary,philosophic and religious sources,how it expresses itself in poetic forms,and why it is also regarded as an American irony.As Bloom's latest publication,The Daemon Know reiterates his consistent stance as "a Romantic Revivalist" and serves as a positive guidance to the deeper understanding of the Romantic tradition and its creative inheritance in modem and contemporary American literature.