西方“共同体”理论建构的世纪跨越--兼评杰拉德·德兰提的专著《共同体》

The Cross-Century Research on “Community” Theory in Western Countries: On Gerard Delanty’s Community

英国学者杰拉德·德兰提的《共同体》(2010年第二版)是迄今为止最完整地介绍和评论西方共同体理论的著作之一。它从哲学、社会学、人类学、宗教、文化、文学等视角多方位地评介了百余种共同体概念,向读者展现了一幅两千多年来西方共同体理论的全景图。本文首先概括该著作的主要特征,然后对其中的某些观点发表自己的看法。接着,本文试图在社会(政治)学和文学批评两种视域下搭建一座共同体理论研究的桥梁,并提出作为文类的"共同体文学"建构的可行性。

Community, written by British scholar Gerard Delanty, is one of the most systematic introductions to and commentary on community theory in western countries. It maps more than one hundred kinds of concepts of "community" from such perspectives as philosophy, sociology, anthropology, religion, culture, and literature, showing readers a panoramic view of more than two thousand years of community theories in the western world. This paper summarizes the book’s distinct features and offers a critical commentary on the book’s ideas. It also endeavors to build a bridge between the concept of community in sociology(politics) and literary criticism. It argues for the feasibility of constructing "community literature" as a literary genre.