双重爱默生：诗性写作与哲性思考

余静远

doi:10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20203404

双重爱默生：诗性写作与哲性思考

doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20203404

余静远^,

中国社会科学院

详细信息

作者简介:
余静远,武汉大学文学学士、硕士,北京大学文学博士。现任职于中国社会科学院外国文学研究所《世界文学》编辑部,主要从事文学与思想史、英美文学与西方文论等研究。

通讯作者:
余静远,E-mail:whu_yjy@126.com

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出版历程
- 收稿日期: 2020-07-07
- 修回日期: 2020-09-09

The Dual Emerson: Poetical Writing and Philosophical Thinking

YU Jing-yuan^,

Institute of Foreign Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

摘要

摘要: 美国19世纪作家爱默生身兼数种身份:他既是一名演讲家、随笔作家、思想家、诗人,早期还曾经是一名传教士。想要明确界定爱默生的归属既不可能也无必要,因为他的写作糅合了多种风格。熟稔希腊文化和基督教文化的爱默生,在他的写作中既采用了希腊式的写作风格,即诗性的感知、表达和形式,诗性的感知需要调动诗人的直觉、灵感和想象,诗意的表达需要借助象征的语言和随笔类不拘的形式,形成有机的整体。同时,爱默生又以基督教的传统为内容基调,即重视哲思和道德说教,他相信宇宙间存在一种“道德法则”,维持着宇宙的和谐;个体也具有天生的道德本性和心灵。这篇论文重点分析爱默生文章中的这两种特性,并在此基础上提出,这两者在爱默生的写作中并不互相冲突,相反,两者互为补充,诗性的写作风格在情感维度增加了文章的感染力;而哲性的思考在理性维度保证了文章的深刻。从这个意义上而言,爱默生可被称为诗性哲学家。
- 爱默生 /
- 诗性写作 /
- 哲性思考 /
- 诗性哲学家
Abstract: Emerson is many things to readers: a lecturer, an essayist, a philosopher, a thinker, a poet, and even a preacher. To assign Emerson to a single category is neither possible nor necessary, for his writing characteristically traverses many categories and thus defies a single monolithic label. Versed both in Hellenism and Hebrew-Christian culture—with the former mainly pertaining to artistic beauty appealing to sensual satisfaction, and the latter to didactic moral teachings appealing to the soul—Emerson employs a Hellenistic style of writing that is poetical in expression and form, which requires a creative spirit that both perceives and expresses poetically. Poetic perception originates from the intuition and inspiration in the mind, and by the power of imagination, finally arrives at a vision of the truth. In the process of transference from vision to words, Emerson uses poetic expression, blending symbolic language and essay form to create an organic whole with grand ideas. Emerson also inherits the Christian tradition,which emphasizes a philosophical conception of moral teaching. He firmly believes that there is a just law upholding a harmonious universe, which he calls the Moral Law, and that each human being has the ability to intuit this Moral Law and act in harmony with it, which Emerson calls the Moral Nature or the Soul. In this essay, I will focus on these two sides of Emerson and, with the support of detailed analysis and interpretation of his dual characteristics, argue that these two sides do not counteract each other in his writings, but rather reinforce each other:poetical writing acts as the emotional dimension, affective and appealing to the emotions, while philosophical thinking acts as the rational dimension that is profound and thought-provoking to the mind. In this sense, Emerson is apt to be termed as a poetical philosopher.
- Emerson /
- poetical writing /
- philosophical thinking /
- poetical philosopher

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