抒情诗的施魅与祛魅——读乔纳森·卡勒的《抒情诗理论》

A Review of Jonathan Culler’s Theory of the Lyric

乔纳森·卡勒的《抒情诗理论》以探究抒情诗语言中最能激发读者兴趣和最令人困惑不解的方面作为出发点,详细探讨了抒情诗的言说方式、声音模式、修辞性、结构特征,以及与社会的关系等问题,试图构建一套适用于西方抒情诗传统的理论体系,纠正现有抒情诗理论的偏颇。卡勒强调了抒情诗的仪式性和修辞性,以及由此带来的施魅与祛魅之间的张力。将《抒情诗理论》与伊格尔顿的《如何读诗》放在一起进行比较,可以发现一些富有意义的异同来。

Jonathan Culler’s Theory of the Lyric seeks to explore, in the first place, the most intriguing and unsettling aspects of lyric language and it elaborates on such issues as lyric address, the sound patterning in the lyric, lyric as epideictic discourse, lyric structures, and the relation between lyric and society. It attempts to work out a general framework for the Western lyric tradition and correct the bias of current theories of the lyric. Culler puts great emphasis on the ritualistic elements of the lyric and on the lyric as epideictic discourse, which contribute to the tension between enchantment and disenchantment in the lyric. By comparing Theory of the Lyric with Terry Eagleton’s How to Read a Poem, we can find some significant similarities and differences.