“Image”考辨

A Textual Research on“Image”

“image/imagery”可翻译为“形象”或“意象”。“形象”源于绘画艺术,其本意指人或事物的形貌,其本质是对物象的摹仿,是心物二元的统一体。“形象”由绘画艺术影响到其他艺术,并形成了“形神”“性格”“典型”等概念。与“形象”极易混淆的“意象”在“意”的表现和“象”的再现之外,可以激发审美主体感性感官的通感,刺激审美主体的联想、想象,从而在文艺作品中直接呈现或蕴藏可意会不可言传的审美意境。作为文艺批评理论术语,针对视觉性或叙事性文艺作品的批评多使用“形象”,而针对抒情性文艺作品的批评则多用“意象”。

The term“image/imagery”can be translated into“xingxiang”or“yixiang”in Chinese.The term“xingxiang”stems from the art of painting,originally referring to the morphology of people or things,so its essence is the imitation of the image of a man or a thing,which contains the unity of subjects and objects.From the art of painting,the concept“xingxiang”extends to other forms of art and forms the concepts of“xingshen”,“xingge”and“dianxing”.As an easily confused term with“xing-xiang”,the concept“yixiang”highlights the expression of“yi”and the reproduction of“xiang”.It can promote the common sense of aesthetic subjects and stimulate their imagination,so as to directly present or contain the unspeakable aesthetic artistic conception in literary and artistic works.As a theoretical term of literary and artistic criticism,the term“xingxiang”is used for criticism of visual or narrative literary and artistic works,while the concept“yixiang”is used for criticism of lyrical literary and artistic works.