悲悯共同体之拓展——伊格尔顿论悲剧英雄

Expanding the Community of Compassion:Terry Eagleton on the Tragic Hero

雷蒙·威廉斯在《现代悲剧》里曾用“从英雄到受害者”的小标题来总结自由主义悲剧的主要特征。特里·伊格尔顿继承和发展了这一见地,他重新审视悲剧艺术的历史,指出,有许多悲剧主角非但称不上“英雄”,而且“极其不讨人喜欢”。在理论层面上,这些负面悲剧主角的存在对亚里士多德的卡塔西斯论提出了尖锐挑战。传统悲剧理论大多遵循亚里士多德的指引,认为悲剧主角在品德上不能低于一般人,否则不能引发观众的怜悯之心。伊格尔顿在这个问题上独辟蹊径,认为我们应该“对恐惧之物产生怜悯”,从而建构一个更具包容性的悲悯共同体。

In his book Modern Tragedy,Raymond Williams includes a chapter titled“From Hero to Victim”to summarize the central characteristic of liberal tragedy.This insight is inherited and further developed by Terry Eagleton,who,after re-examining the history of tragedy,points out that many tragic protagonists are not only unheroic but also“distinctly unprepossessing”.At the theoretical level,the presence of such less-than-attractive tragic characters poses a serious challenge to Aristotle's theory of catharsis.Following Aristotle,most traditional theorists require the tragic protagonist to be morally no worse than the average person in order to arouse feelings of pity in the audience.Eagleton's stance on this issue is unique,urging us“to pity what we fear”so that we can build a more tolerant community of compassion.