心理现实主义的道德批判——《波士顿人》中的叙事技巧与伦理意识

《波士顿人》作为亨利·詹姆斯以心理现实主义手法创作的首部社会问题小说,并不单独局限于个人心理或社会事件,而是将二者有机结合:既通过心理现实主义的叙事技巧细察人物内心,又借道德批判将心理现实主义的诊断“外化”为社会层面的自由伦理诉求。小说对改革者的道德批判也表明,詹姆斯认为社会的进步应诉诸文明教化,而非过度激进的民主运动,后者不仅无法保证个体的自由,反而会催生专制。这种自由伦理思想暗合英国19世纪以来的文化保守主义传统,也为阐释詹姆斯的英-美文化身份问题提供了有效视角。

As a psychological realism novel dealing with American social issues,Henry James'The Bostonians is not limited to individual psychological consciousness or social and political events alone,but combines them in an organic form.By examining the individual consciousness of the characters,James turns the social problems into psychological ones.Meanwhile,through moral criticism,James points out that spiritual freedom at the individual level must be premised on the ethics of communicative intersubjectivity at the social level.The Bostonians'moral criticism of the reformers also shows James'attitudes toward American democracy.James believes that the progress of the society should resort to moral education instead of radical democratic movements,because the latter not only cannot guarantee the realization of freedom,but will lead to autocracy.The fact that James'ethical thought on freedom is consistent with British tradition of cultural conservatism since the 19th century also sheds light on James Anglo-American cultural identity.