从“尤利西斯”形象的变异看西方人文观的形塑与嬗变

The Formation and Variation of Western Humanism as Seen in the Transformation of Ulysses’ Images

尽管西方作家在许多作品中都塑造了传奇人物“尤利西斯”,但各个时期西方作品中的“尤利西斯”形象却各不相同。荷马史诗《奥德赛》中的尤利西斯是世俗人本精神的初创者;维吉尔《埃涅阿斯纪》中的尤利西斯是理性意识的觉醒者;但丁《神曲》的尤利西斯是神权压抑下个体精神的捍卫者;丁尼生诗歌中的尤利西斯是资本主义文化的先驱者;而詹姆斯?乔伊斯《尤利西斯》中的布鲁姆这位“现代版尤利西斯”则是西方文明信仰失落中孤独的精神流浪者。本文通过梳理西方文学对“尤利西斯”形象的塑造与嬗变过程来探讨西方文明在几个重要的文化转型时期人文观念的传承与变革,这对于研究西方文学和文化具有重大意义。

Though many western writers have shaped the legendry character of “Ulysses”, the images of “Ulysses” vary in different western works in different times. In Homer’s Odyssey “Ulysses” is the initial establisher of secular humanism;in Virgil’s Aeneid he is the awakened one with rational sense;in Dante’s The Divine Comedy he is the defender of individualism against theocracy;in Tennyson’s poem Ulysses, he is a pioneer of capitalist civilization;while in James Joyce’s Ulysses, under the guise of Bloom, this modern Ulysses is a lonely spiritual tramp in the faith-lost western capitalist civilization. By studying the molding and transformation of Ulysses’ image chronically, which is meaningful and unavoidable for study on western literature and culture, the essay casts light on the succession and revolution of western humanism in several significant cultural transitions and turns.