《皇帝与加利利人》中的历史人物原型回溯

Tracing the Historical Prototype of the Character in Emperor and Galilean

易卜生剧作《皇帝与加利利人》中的主人公是以古罗马帝国的君王朱里亚努斯为原型塑造出来的。在历史文献的基础上,就这一形象的文学书写加以梳理,并在比较中呈现其中的关联、对应和差异,可以发现历史上的朱里亚努斯想通过复兴多神教抑制基督教的发展,而易卜生却力图将他塑造成能够融合并升华两种信仰的革新者;由于发现其宗教思想中的悖论,易卜生在剧作中否定了这种革新的可能。他所发现的悖论也为朱里亚努斯的相关研究带来启发。《皇帝与加利利人》的情节设置固然与现实的影响不无关联,但它也说明文学创作与史书撰写的原则虽不同,可文学家的思考未必完全不受史料的限制。因此,除关怀现实以外,文学作品也可以揭示历史问题的可能性。

The leading character in Ibsen’s play,Emperor and Galilean,is modeled on Flavius Claudius Julianus,the Emperor in the late Roman Empire.By looking through various literary representations of such a character based on historical documents and identifying,by comparison,the connection,correspondence,and differentiation in between,we may discover that Julianus attempted to contain the development of Christianity by reviving polytheism,whereas Ibsen strove to portray him as a reformist who could reconcile and transcend both religions to a higher level.Thanks to his discovery of the paradox in Julianus’religious thoughts,Ibsen had to nullify the possibility of such a reform in his play.The paradox discovered by Ibsen,nevertheless,offered a great inspiration to the research on Julianus.Even though the plot development of Emperor and Galilean was somewhat influenced by reality,it still shows that literary writing is utterly different from the principles of historical writing,but the thinking of literary writers is hardly free from the influence of reality altogether.Therefore,literary works may expound potential historical issues while keeping track of reality.