趣味即文化:阿诺德对文学批评的贡献

Taste as Culture:Mathew Arnold’s Contribution to Literary Criticism

在贬损阿诺德的声音中,有两种观点最具影响:1.阿诺德是精英主义者,他的文学批评思想只为统治阶级服务;2.与其说阿诺德是批评家,不如说他是文学批评的宣传家。我们有必要多角度地从事阿诺德研究,进而说明上述观点为何有失偏颇。欲熟谙阿诺德文学批评的精髓,须着眼于作为他文化蓝图中枢的趣味观。他主张建立一个"趣味中心",主张"集体标准和理想",这不仅是为了防止个人趣味的盲目性和武断性,更是为了防止整个国家妄自尊大。我们可以借用阿甘本的"完美点"一说,来形容阿诺德的批评实践。理由是阿诺德虽然没有用这一概念表述他的标准,但实际上正是依循是否具备"完美点"来评价文学作品,从而展示"完美点"所体现的趣味。

Of all the voices that denigrate Mathew Arnold,two are most influential:a)the claim that Arnold was an elitist,whose views on literary criticism merely served the interests of the ruling classes;b)the assumption that Arnold was rather a propagandist for literary criticism than a critic.We need to conduct the studies of Arnold from multiple perspectives and thereby pinpoint the erroneousness of the fore-going views.We need to proceed from taste,which constitutes the pivotal part of Arnold’s cultural blueprint,if we want to thoroughly understand the quintessence of his literary criticism.Arnold called for"the centre of taste"and advocated"collective standards and ideals"with the aim not only to prevent individual taste from becoming blind and arbitrary,but also to guard the whole state against growing arrogant.It seems appropriate for us to describe Arnold’s critical practice with a term from Giorgio Agamben,namely"the point de perfection".The reason is that although Arnold did not use this term to indicate his standards,he actually evaluated literary works based on whether or not they reached"the point de perfection",thus revealing the taste as embodied in it.