西方颓废派文学中的“疾病”隐喻发微

Illness as Metaphor in Western Decadent Literature

19世纪中叶以降,在由浪漫主义自由理念衍生出的"反自然"和"反道德"观念的引导下,西方作家对各类"反常"话题的热情持续升温,而"疾病"则处于此种美学兴趣的中心。与借助科学的客观视角审视、刻画病理学层面上的"疾病"的自然主义文学不同,波德莱尔、于斯曼等颓废派作家将更多精力用于发掘与彰显"疾病"在构筑新的美学理念和精神主题等方面的独特潜质和优势。颓废派作家以迷恋"疾病"的颓废者形象建构了颓废派文学最为鲜明独特的标识。他们通过确立"疾病"之于布尔乔亚式"健康"的优越地位,彰显其蔑视、疏离和反叛平庸化的布尔乔亚大众审美观与价值观的个人主义精英立场;他们在逾越常规的非理性生命状态中探索和创造崭新的美,带来了开启"反思"的"震惊"效应,由此彻底颠覆了古典主义的审美范式;他们将从浪漫派的"忧郁"发展而来的神经质的"怨怒"作为颓废主人公的情感底色,以精神分裂作为其常见的病理学症状,以"反自然"的行为与心理作为其唯美-颓废生活的特征,精确地描绘出以啜饮自由感为唯一生存理想的颓废者形象。

Since the mid-19 th century,the enthusiasm of western writers upon various"abnormal"topics have continued to thrive under the guidance of the"anti-natural"and"anti-moral"concepts derived from the idea of"freedom"of Romanticists,and"illness"is at the center of this aesthetic interest.Decadent writers such as Baudelaire and J.K.Huysmans devoted more energy to exploring and highlighting the unique potentials and advantages of"illness"in constructing new aesthetic ideas and spiritual themes,which was quite different from Naturalism that examined and depicted"illness"at the pathological level under the objective perspective of science.Decadent writers constructed the most distinctive mark of Decadent literature with the image of a Decadent who was infatuated with"illness".They demonstrated their individualistic elite position of contempt,alienation and rebellion against the bourgeois aesthetic standards and values by establishing the superior status of"illness"to the bourgeois"health".They explored and created new kind of beauty in an irrational state of life,which brought the so-called"Shock"effect which inspired introspection,thus thoroughly overturning the classical aesthetic paradigm.They set neurotic"Spleen"-which was developed from Romantic"Melancholy"-as the emotional impression of decadent protagonists,and set schizophrenia as common pathological symptom,and,at the same time,depicted"anti-natural"behavior and mind as the main feature of their aesthetic-decadent life,thereby accurately created the image of a Decadent whose sole pursuit of life is"free sensitivity".