论趣味的演变与延续性

“End Your Groan and Come Away”:A Note on the Change and Continuity of Taste

任何文明、国家和地区的文学趣味都是在历史进程中形成的,与价值观念、宗教信仰和风俗习惯有着盘根错节的联系,不能用一成不变的本质主义语言来解释,但是开放形态的趣味也有其延续性。狄更斯《老古玩店》出版百年之间的浮沉就折射出英国读书界趣味的演变。小说中关于耐儿之死的描写当初打动无数读者,对于现代读者而言就有滥情之嫌。然而这种对于滥情笔法的反感也反映了英国文化中偏爱幽默和喜剧风格的特点。针对小说、诗歌中滥情的批评还见诸于伍尔夫和利维斯笔下。受莱斯利·斯蒂芬的影响,两位作者的观点中蕴含着克己去我的道德力量,代表了英国文学中趣味的延续性。

Taste in literature of any civilization,nation or region is all formulated in historical process.It is interwoven with values,beliefs and manners,and cannot be literally interpreted in essentialist terms.But a tast in open form has its continuity.The ups and downs that Dickens’The Old Curiosity Shop(1841)has gone through for more than a century since its publication reflect the change of taste in British readership.The description of Little Nell’s death in the novel touched countless readers deeply at that time,whereas it might seem,to readers today,excessively sappy.However,such a resentment to overly sentimental writing also indicates the partiality for humor and comedy in British culture.The criticism of oversentimentality in novel and poetry can be easily found in writings by Virginia Woolf and F.R.Leavis.Due to the influence from Leslie Stephen,their view contains a moral power for self-restraint and impersonality and,therefore,embodies the continuity of taste in British literature.