说不尽的“拉奥孔”——文学与其他艺术关系史的一个考察

The Inexhaustible Laocoon: A Study on the History of the Relationship between Literature and Other Arts

拉奥孔在美学和文学理论中是一个反复提及讨论的话题,涉及文学与其他艺术的复杂关系。本文聚焦于拉奥孔的3个经典文本,分别解析了拉奥孔讨论中的三种不同话语,即莱辛《拉奥孔》中"诗画分界"的古典话语,白璧德《新拉奥孔》中各门艺术融合的浪漫主义话语,以及格林伯格"走向更新的拉奥孔"中"告别文学"的现代主义话语。莱辛的古典话语是一种文学优越论的理论,白璧德的浪漫主义话语则在各门艺术平等关系中凸显音乐至上说,而格林伯格的现代主义话语则彰显了"视觉转向"中抽象表现主义绘画主导论。文学在西方美学和文学理论话语中是从中心走向平等的一员,也反映出各门艺术复杂的关系史,以及社会文化变迁对理解各门艺术及其关系的影响。

Laocoon,repeatedly cited and discussed in aesthetics and literary theory,involves the complex relationship between literature and other arts.The paper studies three classic texts about Laocoon,namely,Lessing’s writing about the dividing line between poetry and painting in his The Laocoon and His Sons,Babbitt’s romantic discourse of fusion of arts in his The New Laokoon:An Essay on the Confusion of the Arts,and Greenberg’s modernist discourse of"farewell to literature"in his"Towards a Newer Laocoon."Lessing’s classic discourse is a theory of literary superiority,Babbit’s romantic discourse highlights the supremacy of music in the equal status of various arts,while Greenberg’s modernist discourse is dominated by the focus on painting of abstract expressionism in the"visual turn."Literature changes from the center to be a member equal to other arts in western aesthetics and literary theory,which is a reflection of the complicated historical relationship of different arts,and the influence of social and cultural changes on the understanding of arts and their relationships.