礼仪、道德与情感——《理智与情感》的文化内涵

Manners,Morality,and Sensibility: A Cultural Approach to Sense and Sensibility

国内外一些评论家认为奥斯汀的小说情节与伯克的社会政治思想不谋而合,却未注意到伯克情感主义哲学家的身份,没有对伯克式教养和切斯特菲尔德式教养加以区分,殊不知前者注重道德,而后者注重举止礼仪。本文将《理智与情感》放在英国情感主义思潮的历史文化框架下,以教养为切入点加以解读,指出奥斯汀的“教养观”与苏格兰情感主义哲学家之间的关联。从沙夫茨伯里到休谟,从斯密到伯克,可见一条“同情”脉络,而这脉络中后来又多了一种更大的存在,即奥斯汀的贡献。

Critics at home and abroad have taken note of the fact that Jane Austen’s ideas as reflected in her novels coincide with Edmund Burke’s thoughts on politics and society,but they tend to overlook the status of Burke as a sentimentalist philosopher.As a result,they often fail to make a distinction between Chesterfieldian manners,which lay great emphasis on graceful demeanor,and Burkean manners,which have close affinity with morality.The present paper aims to examine Sense and Sensibility in the historical context of sentimentalism in Britain,and to proceed from the perspective of manners,thus shedding light on the interrelation of Austen’s views on manners and those of such Scottish sentimentalist philosophers as Burke.