苹果意象的普适性与开放性

On the Universality and Openness of the Archetypical Imagery

自希腊罗马神话和《圣经》以来,苹果作为一个典型意象复现于包括希腊悲剧、文艺复兴时期十四行诗、近现代小说和诗歌等各个时代的文学文本中。由于这些经典文本的传播和影响,"苹果"因其象征意义的流传性之广和熟识度之高,几乎已演变为"西方文化"的代表性符号之一。朗格斯、莎士比亚、弥尔顿、乔伊斯、罗塞蒂、高尔斯华绥、弗罗斯特等人笔下的"苹果"既有相对恒定的内涵,又各具象征意义。弗莱描述的"启示世界"包含五类原型意象,其中之一便为自然意象;"苹果"意象可视作植物代表,生动反映原型意象在内涵上的普适性以及外延上的开放性,从而印证作为一个"有机整体"的文学艺术,因其发展过程兼具自觉和不自觉的传承与延展,才拥有穿越时代的生命力。

The apple,since its appearance in Greek and Roman mythologies and The Bible,has been frequently presented in the literary texts of almost all genres of all time,namely,the Greek tragedy,sonnets of the Renaissance,modern or contemporary novels and poetry. As a result,the'apple',with a symbolic meaning of incomparable popularity and familiarity,has been devloped into a typical sign of Western Culture. The image of apple,in the works of Euripides,Shakespeare,Milton,James Joyce,Christina Rossetti,Galswrthy and Robert Frost,owns its comparatively enduring connotations and varius denotations on the other hand. In accordance with Northrop Frye's theory of the archetypes of literature,the plant in nature,categorized as one of the five classical archetypical images,can be typically exemplified and represented by the apple. Thus the analysis of the symbolic meanings of the apple suggests effectively the universality and openness of the archetypical imagery,and in this sense proves the fact that the literature,as'an organic integrity',has been developed consciously and unconsciously by blending the heritance with with the creation. Therefore,it is embodied with the immortality that is able to transcend all time.