《被侮辱与被损害的》中的浪子回头主题与东正教人道主义思想

The Theme of “the Prodigal’s Return” and the Orthodox Humanitarianism in Humiliated and Insulted

浪子是欧美成长小说和考验小说中的常见形象,浪子回头主题往往体现着人道主义精神和基督教的感召力量。学术史上对《被侮辱与被损害的》的研究,往往主要关注娜塔莎这一位浪子形象,而小说中实际上存在诸多程度不同的浪子,有的已经回归,成为所谓的“逆来顺受的人”,有的不甘心回归,仍挣扎于形形色色的利己主义中。陀思妥耶夫斯基对多位浪子的命运的安排,不但引发了读者对“被侮辱与被损害的”底层群体的人道主义同情,也受到了民主派对小说宣扬隐忍顺从、逆来顺受的激烈批评。作家的东正教人道主义思想在竭力求得一种平衡,即:在彰显作为浪子的社会底层人物的个性意识觉醒的同时,又不希望他们叛离俄国传统的东正教根基。因此,小说既具有浪子回头的广泛意义,又打上了作家赋予这一主题的独特的东正教人道主义意识的烙印。就思想性和艺术性的有机结合而言,浪子形象和浪子回头主题对凸显《被侮辱与被损害的》在作家创作之路上承前启后的地位具有十分重要的意义。

As a common theme in the Bildungsroman and“the novel of ordeal”in European and A-merican culture,the return of the prodigal son usually embodies the spirit of humanitarianism and the appeal of Christianity.While Natasha is the prodigal par excellence that has often come under scrutiny in the study of Humiliated and Insulted,there remain some prodigal variations that have received much less if not no attention:the so-called“resigned”-resigned oneself to adversity and the so-called“unreconciled”-still sunken in the mire of various shades of egoism.Dostoevsky's treatment in the novel of the fate of those prodigals arouses in the readership not only a humanitarian sympathy for the“humiliated and insulted”,the disadvantaged,but also a fierce criticism on the part of the“democrats”who have little patience with the alleged advocacy of resignation and reconciliation.The point to see is:Dostoevsky,out of his Orthodox humanitari-anism,attempts here to strike a balance between highlighting the awakening of the underprivi-leged prodigals'individual consciousness on the one hand,and on the other,expressing a wish that those prodigals remain rooted in the Russian Orthodox tradition.The universal image of the prodigal's return is thus branded with a unique humanitarian spirit of the Orthodox Church.In this sense,the artistic treatment of the prodigal theme as realized in Humiliated and Insulted con-stitutes a significant transition in Dostoevsky's writing career.