（英语语言文学专业论文）本体论诗学：《理解诗歌》的一种阐释.pdf

v 摘 要 摘 要 克林斯布鲁克斯(cleanth brooks, 1906-1994)和罗伯特佩恩沃伦(robert penn warren, 1905-1989)是在美国文学理论界久负盛名的关键人物。1938 年布鲁克斯与沃伦 出版了理解诗歌 ，从此一举成名。此后，布鲁克斯和沃伦仍笔耕不辍，硕果累累确 保了他们在文学批评领域的地位。作为“新批评”有影响力的成员以及本体论诗学创始 人约翰克娄兰色姆（john crowe ransom，1888-1974）的合作者和弟子，布鲁 克斯和沃伦受兰色姆影响极大，其所著的理解诗歌也对他的本体论批评表现出很大 关注， 尤其是在诗歌与经验世界不可割裂的关系以及能构成有机整体的彼此相关的内部 要素等方面。他们不厌其烦地解释如何理解诗歌。其全面的思考，详细的分析和推导， 无数巧妙的示例，目的都是为了找到一个理想的方式来评价诗歌。 尽管西方文学批评家对这部教科书的巨大贡献做出过评论，但由于材料有限，目前 我国对这部著作的关注还相对不多。因此，本文采用新的观点，通过本体论诗学和文本 分析方法论的运用，对布鲁克斯与沃伦的理解诗歌加以审视，目的是要从两个视角 就这部教材中所体现出的理论展开探索，此即，就其外部而论，诗是经验的书写；就其 内部来看，诗则是一有机整体；同时还要指出，阐释诗歌的最佳方法就是加以经验。 布鲁克斯与沃伦在寻找如何更好更合理地研究诗歌的过程中， 在相应的范畴下列举 了大量的诗歌来探索它们之间的差异和联系。 他们对具体方法及其在相关诗歌上的应用 持之以恒的疏解总是会激励全世界的人不懈怠地去探寻诗之“真” 、赏评诗之“美” 。 本论文由引言、正文和结论三部分组成。 引言部分主要是对“新批评”扼要的介绍。对这一运动的代表人物、布鲁克斯的经 历及其主要的文学思想予以突出。其次，简要介绍了沃伦的生平和他的“不纯诗”法则。 在文献综述部分，作者概括了国内外学者对“新批评”理论的研究和评论。此外，对本 文的理论基础兰色姆的本体论诗学也进行了一般性的介绍。最后，作者陈述了本文 的结构安排。 第一章致力于对理解诗歌这部著作的大致结构和相关评论的扼要分析，也对书 中所体现的本体论观点进行了一般性的介绍。 vi 第二章分析了理解诗歌这部书的前五章，并根据诗之真、诗之美以及诗之真与 美的共存关系将其划分为三个部分。在这一章，作者试图说明诗是经验的某种反映。 第三章主要是通过对分别关涉鸟和母亲意象的具体诗歌的差异和联系的讨论， 来研 究有机整体法则对具体诗歌的应用。在这一章，作者试图论证，由于一首诗与别的诗在 历史文化上相维系，因而诗并非孤立的实体。 以上述分析为基础，结论部分总结了全文，并且指出布鲁克斯与沃伦成功地在理 解诗歌中为读着提供了足够的证据来验证兰色姆的本体论诗学。同时，由于掌握的资 源有限，本文无法对这部著作进行更为深入的研究；而且，对附录的详细研究始终是一 个尚待解决的问题。但是，作者希望这一研究能够唤起人们对探究这一著作学术价值的 兴趣，并在一定程度上减少人们认为“新批评”是不科学的、不合理的、片面的文学运 动的偏见。 关键词：本体论诗学， 理解诗歌 ，经验，有机整体 i abstract cleanth brooks (1906-1994) and robert penn warren (1905-1989) are key figures in american literary theory circle of all times. after establishing a worldwide fame through the publication of understanding poetry in 1938, brooks and warrens continuous writing and fruitful achievements have secured their position in the field of literary criticism. as the influential members of the new criticism, the collaborators and disciples of john crowe ransom (1888-1974)the founder of ontological poetics, brooks and warren are impacted by ransom, and their understanding poetry surely shows great concern for his ontological criticism, especially in the inseparable relation between poetry and the experiential world, and the mutually related internal elements in composing an organic unity. they take pains to explain how to understand poetry. their comprehensive consideration, their detailed analysis and induction, and their numerous subtle illustrations are all aimed at an ideal way of evaluating poetry. although western critics have commented on the great contributions of this textbook, few materials are available and less attention has been paid to this book in china. therefore, by employing the ontological poetics and the methodology of text analysis, this thesis is going to cast a new angle of view on brooks and warrens understanding poetry, attempting to probe into the theories embodied in this textbook from two perspectives, that is, beyond it, poesy is a written experience; in it, poetry is an organic unity, meanwhile, pointing out that the best way to interpret poetry is to experience it. brooks and warren have enumerated uncountable poems to explore the disparities and connections under the due categories in the course of searching for the ways to study poetry in a better and more reasonable way. their persistent explanation of the specific methods and their application to correlative poems would always encourage people all over the world to ii tirelessly explore the truth of the poetry and appreciate the beauty of it. besides the introduction and the conclusion, this thesis falls into three chapters. the introduction mainly includes a brief introduction to the new criticism. among the representatives of this movement, brooks and his main literary thought are emphasized. then, it gives a brief review of warren, including a biographical recommendation and a brief generalization of his law of impure poetry. in the literature review, the present writer summarizes the critical reaction to the new criticism at home and abroad. besides, the theoretical basis of this thesisransoms ontological poetics is generally introduced in this part. finally, the present writer states the organization of this thesis. chapter one is devoted to making a brief analysis of the general structure of and the critical responses to understanding poetry, and the embodied ontological view is generally introduced. chapter two analyzes the first five sections of understanding poetry by dividing them into three parts according to the truth of poetry, the beauty of poesy, and the coexistence of truth and beauty. in this chapter, the present writer intends to explain that poetry is a reflection of experience. chapter three is mainly about the application of the law of organic unity on specific poems through the discussion of the difference and connection of the poems respectively relating to the image of the bird and the mother. in this chapter, the present writer attempts to prove that poetry is not an isolated entity, since a poem is historically and culturally connected with other poems. based on the above analysis, this thesis comes to the conclusion that brooks and warren successfully present readers enough evidence to support ransoms ontological poetics in understanding poetry. at the same time, on the account of the limited resources at hand, this thesis cannot do a deeper study on this book and the detailed studies of the appendixes remain iii unsolved. but the present writer hopes this study can arouse peoples interest in exploring the academic value of this book with no discrimination to the new criticism, to some extent, by regarding it as an unscientific, irrational and one-sided literary movement. key words: ontological poetics, understanding poetry, experience, organic unity 关于学位论文独创声明和学术诚信承诺 本人向河南大学提出硕士学位申请。本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文是本人在导 师的指导下独立完成的， 对所研究的课题有新的见解。 据我所知， 除文中特别加以说明、 标注和致谢的地方外，论文中不包括其他人已经发表或撰写过的研究成果，也不包括其 他人为获得任何教育、科研机构的学位或证书而使用过的材料。与我一同工作的同事对 本研究所做的任何贡献均已在论文中作了明确的说明并表示了谢意。 在此本人郑重承诺：所呈交的学位论文不存在舞弊作伪行为，文责自负。 学位申请人（学位论文作者）签名： 201 年 月 日 关于学位论文著作权使用授权书 本人经河南大学审核批准授予硕士学位。作为学位论文的作者，本人完全了解并同 意河南大学有关保留、使用学位论文的要求，即河南大学有权向国家图书馆、科研信息 机构、数据收集机构和本校图书馆等提供学位论文（纸质文本和电子文本）以供公众检 索、查阅。本人授权河南大学出于宣扬、展览学校学术发展和进行学术交流等目的，可 以采取影印、 缩印、 扫描和拷贝等复制手段保存、 汇编学位论文 （纸质文本和电子文本） 。 （涉及保密内容的学位论文在解密后适用本授权书） 学位获得者（学位论文作者）签名： 201 年 月 日 学位论文指导教师签名： 201 年 月 日 introduction 1 introduction this paper intends to study cleanth brooks (1906-1994) and robert penn warrens (1905-1989) understanding poetry (1938) from john crowe ransoms (1888-1974) ontological poetics. indeed, the publication of this book ushers in a “revolution” and its being used as a textbook has influenced a generation of readers in both america and the english-speaking world as a whole. poetry, the target of this thesis, is the precious heritage of all human beings, as from which the other learnings have sought their beginnings. poesy is so universal that no civilized nation despises it, nor primitive people are without it. though plato (429 b.c.e.-347 b.c.e.) claims that poets be expelled from his republic because poetry is “thrice removed from truth” and can appeal to the dangerous emotion of man, he confirms that “hymns to the gods and praises of famous men” (zhang zhongzai, 2006: 23) are acceptable, let alone the other thinkers. both aristotle (384 b.c.e.-322 b.c.e.) and horace (65 b.c.e.-8 b.c.e.) believe that poetry is an art of imitation or mimesis, and the reality is the sample for them to imitate. in addition, aristotle admits that poetry is a more philosophical and higher thing than history, which is not so amazing when compared with giovanni boccaccios (1313-1375) view that poetry is theology and vice versa. it is thus clear that poetry is extremely important in western history. naturally, literary criticism that deals with the laws of poetry is within the common study. in the 20th centurythe age of theory, the literary study of poetry reaches its apogee. it is welcomed by a number of highly influential russian and soviet scholars, who really thought that poetry, the particular literary form, is an alternative name of literature. the new criticism, dominating anglo-american literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th ontological poetics: an interpretation of understanding poetry 2 century, agrees with this statement. as terry eagleton (1943- ) holds: “most literary theories, in fact, unconsciously foreground a particular literary genre, and derive their general pronouncements from this” (eagleton, 2004: 44). the new critics focus on this “purest, least socially tainted form” (ibid., 44), hoping to discover how a poem came to existence as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic object by close reading. though with the popularity of novel and the shift of critical perspectives, the new criticism declines, yet its contribution in preparing the way for the emergency of other theories is unassailable. besides, its theoretical viewpointi.e., close reading is extraordinarily active in contemporary literary criticism. in view of the above, the study of this movement is convincing. in this part, the present writer firstly makes a general introduction to the new criticism, and then gives an account of brooks and warrens life and their glorious literary achievements. next, it is the presentation of the critical responses to the new criticism, brooks, warren, and ransom at home and abroad. then in the following section, the present writer makes a general introduction to ransoms ontological poetics. the last section is the structure of this thesis. 0.1 an introduction to the new criticism, brooks, and warren 0.1.1 an introduction to the new criticism as a reaction against the romanticism which sees art as self-expression or the impressionism which exalts the subjectivity of the reader or applies extrinsic criteria to literature or gives credence to the intentions of the author, the new criticism first emerges in public in the 1920s. this movement is named after john crowe ransoms book the new criticism, which is published in 1941. indeed, the foundations of this school lie in books and eagleton is widely regarded as britains most influential living literary critic. probably, his literary theory: an introduction, is the best-known work, which traces the history of the study of texts from the romantics of the nineteenth century to the postmodernists of the later twentieth century from the perspective of a marxist. introduction 3 essays written by i. a. richards (1893-1979) (practical criticism in 1929), william empson (1906-1984) (seven types of ambiguity in 1930),and t. s. eliot (1888-1965) (“tradition and the individual talent” in 1920). however, the theoretical basis is later significantly developed by a group of american poets and critics, including r. p. blackmur (1904-1965), ransom, brooks, allen tate (1899-1979), warren, and w. k. wimsatt (1907-1975), etc. the new criticism is distinctly formalism in essence. it stresses close attention to the internal characteristics of “words on the page” and performs a close reading of the text by concentrating on the formal aspects like rhythm, meter, imagery, metaphor, etc. besides, the new critics privilege poetry over other forms of literary expression, however, the techniques of close reading and structural analysis of texts have also been applied to other literary forms, such as fiction and drama. though the new critics pay special attention to the structure within the text, they believe the structure of the text should not be divorced from meaning, but view the two constitutes a unity. especially, the new critics appreciate the use of literary devices, such as irony, in achieving a balance or reconciliation between dissimilar or conflicting elements in a text. generally speaking, people always associate the new criticism with certain principles and termssuch as intentional fallacy and affective fallacy, and consider the new critics are trying to make the text an isolated and objective entity, which is independent from the authors intention, readers response, or historical and cultural contexts. indeed, the new critics take pains to make criticism scientific, or at least “bringing literary study to a condition rivaling that of science” (wellek, 1978: 611). besides, though many of the new in 1946, w. k. wimsatt (1907-1975) and monroe c. beardsley (1915-1985) publish an essay entitled “the intentional fallacy”, in which they argue against any discussion of an authors intention, or his “intended meaning”. for them, the words on the page are all that mattered and the importation of meanings from the outside is quite irrelevant and potentially distracting. they insist that we cannot use the authors intention to judge a literary work, since the work is a public utterance, not a private one that depends on the design of its author. (leitch, 2001: 1372) the essay “the affective fallacy” is published in 1949, in which wimsatt and beardsley discount the readers peculiar reaction as a valid measure of a text. for them, “the affective fallacy is a confusion between the poem and its results (what it is and what it does), a special case of epistemological skepticism . . . which . . . begins by trying to derive the standard of criticism from the psychological effects of the poem and ends in impressionism and relativism with the result that the poem itself, as an object of specifically critical judgment, tends to disappear.” (leitch, 2001: 1388) ontological poetics: an interpretation of understanding poetry 4 critics share similarities in their points of view and procedures, they differ from one another in many ways. wellek agrees by regarding the new criticism as a “blanket term” (wellek, 1963: 60), which “largely obscures the extreme diversity of recent american criticism, the deep contradictions and divergences between the main critics” (ibid., 60). here, the distinctive principles in brooks and warrens tenets are the focuses of this paper. although the new criticism is no longer a dominant critical movement, the relevant knowledge of the new criticism is essential in understanding the history of literary criticism. in addition, no matter what is the source of its popularity or the reason for its decline, its practitioners and the textbooks they write are influential in american academia and the approach they use becomes standard in college through the 1960s and well into the 1970s. 0.1.2 a general review of brooks cleanth brooks is an influential american literary critic and professor. he was born in murray, one of the six children of a methodist minister. he receives a classical education at a private academymctyeire school, and goes on his study at vanderbilt university in nashville, where he receives his b.a. in 1928. he then gets his m.a. from tulane university the very next year. after that, he studies as a rhodes scholar at exeter college in oxford, and his teaching career begins at louisiana state university in baton rouge in 1932. during his studies at vanderbilt, he meets his future collaborators warren, ransom, etc. studying with them, brooks involves himself in the southern agrarians and the fugitives. brooks admits that he “learned a great deal” (leitch, 2001: 1350) from reading the southern agrarian manifesto, and finds the agrarian position valuable and “unobjectionable” (ibid., 1350): “they asked that we consider what the good life is or ought to be” (ibid., 1350). the fugitive movement similarly influences brooks approach to criticism. the fugitives, a group in 1930, ransom, along with 11 other southern agrarians, publishes the agrarian manifesto “ill take my stand”. they advocate that “scientific rationalism was ravaging the aesthetic life of the old south, human experience was being stripped of its sensuous particularity, and poetry was a possible solution.”(terry eagleton, 1996: 40) introduction 5 of southern poets consisting of such influential writers as ransom, warren and tate, meet regularly to read and discuss the poems written by members of the group. based on intensive readings, their discussion involves everything within the scope of poetry, such as the structure, meter, rhyme scheme, and imagery of a poem, and such close reading and discussion form the foundations on which the new criticism movement are based and help to shape brooks approach to criticism. without doubt, brooks is an important figure of the new criticism. his main contribution to the new criticism lies in revolutionizing the teaching of poetry in american higher education. his best-known works, the well-wrought urn: studies in the structure of poetry (1947), modern poetry and the tradition (1939), and understanding poetry with warren as co-author, demonstrate that paradox is an effective way to understand and appreciate poetry for one thing; for another thing, critics should avoid degrading a poem to a single paraphrase. with these works, brooks helps to formulate some of the main principles of the new criticism, emphasizing “the interior life of a poem” (ibid., 1351). brooks is also the preeminent critic of southern literature with his comment on william faulkner (1897-1962) as a classic. mark royden winchell (1948-2008) considers brooks text on faulkner to be “the best book yet on the works of william faulkner” (winchell, 1996: xi) in cleanth brooks and the rise of modern criticism. besides, along with warren, brooks founds an influential journal, the southern review. further, winchell praises brooks for “helping invent the modern literary quarterly” (ibid. xi). as to brooks main literary