弥尔顿的“批评式引喻”——论《失乐园》中的撒旦与西方古典史诗中的英雄

Milton’s“Critical Allusion”:On Satan in Paradise Lost and the Heroes in Western Classical Epics

引喻是《失乐园》的一大艺术特色,也是解读撒旦内在品质的切入点。弥尔顿征引了西方古典史诗中英雄的语言、行动和场景,与撒旦建立起关联。然而,这种关联并非意指撒旦是《失乐园》的英雄,而是以传统英雄为参照来批评、讽刺撒旦。本文梳理国内学界尚未见系统研究的《失乐园》的引喻传统,介绍"批评式引喻"的概念和作用,通过剖析撒旦与阿喀琉斯、埃涅阿斯、奥德修斯等史诗英雄典型的引喻,指出该手法的目的恰在于揭示二者实质上的不同,曝露撒旦"做恶才是唯一乐事"的邪恶动机和毁灭本质。引入"批评式引喻"以揭示《失乐园》撒旦的伪英雄品质,也是为有关弥尔顿的撒旦评价长期对决的传统提供一份补充。

One of the most distinctive techniques of Paradise Lost,allusion,provides an interpretive approach to the nature of Satan.Milton alludes to the language,actions,and situations of heroes in Western classical epics,associating Satan with them.These associations,however,do not place Satan in the position of the hero in Paradise Lost.Rather,they set the traditional heroes as the standard against which Satan’s nature is measured.This article,therefore,reviews Milton’s"critical allusion"in Paradise Lost and how it sheds light upon the interpretation of the pseudo-heroic nature of Satan.This approach has not been systematically studied in domestic academic circles.The present article first introduces the concept and function of"critical allusion."Then it points out that Milton’s relation of Satan to such archetypal epic heroes as Achilles,Aeneas,and Odysseus is intended to expose by contrast Satan’s evil motive and destructive nature revealed by his own admission:"[T]o do ill our sole delight."Taking"critical allusion"as an approach to interpreting Milton’s Satan therefore provides an additional perspective for the long-standing debate of Milton’s Satan as a hero or pseudo-hero in Miltonic scholarship.