摘要
如果说19世纪英国文人的文化观蕴含着转型焦虑,贯穿着对机械文明所代表的"进步"话语的质疑和批判,那么进入20世纪以后,英国社会的转型焦虑呈现出新的特征。第二次世界大战在结束的同时,也终结了人类社会"线性进步"的神话,但"科技进步""福利至上"的话语仍然不绝于耳。这给当年由托马斯·卡莱尔等人开创的、针对"进步"话语的批评语境增添了新的语料和新的视角,促使文化批评向新的深度拓展。斯诺和利维斯之间的"两种文化"之辩并非简单的科学与人文之争,而是体现二者文化观念的不同,折射出二战后英国文化观念的嬗变,尤其是科学主义、技术功利主义话语对文化观念的侵蚀。该事件及其余波极大地影响了二战后英国文坛的文学创作和文化观念之间的互动。
Compared with the cultural criticism initiated by Thomas Carlyle and other British men of letters in the 19 th Century that embodies their"transitional anxiety",revealing their doubt and critique on the"progressive discourses"of mechanical civilization,cultural criticism in the 20 th Century reflects a new"transitional anxiety"with new characteristics.Though the two world wars finished up the myth of linear social progress,the optimistic discourses like"scientific advance"and"welfare first"were still prevailing,which provides new targets and new context for the British post-war cultural criticism.The"Two Cultures"Debate between F.R.Leavis and C.P.Snow tend to be simplified as a controversy over literature and science,as critics mostly attend to their initial talks and neglect their later reflections and revisions.If we explore the event throughout,however,and put it in the context of cultural criticism in the post-war transitional period,we will find that rather than just a division of"science vs.literature",it reveals two different ideas of culture.Borrowing the concept of culture from anthropology with an instrumental and utilitarian understanding of concept,Snow evaluated the Two Cultures in terms of quantity.Leavis,on the contrary,inherited the Romantic idea of culture as a counter force to resist the"external civilization"and therefore,in his mind,there was only"one culture",the cultural tradition,which was the best of human accomplishments and indivisible.The opposite ideas of Leavis and Snow originated from their different"anxiety"over the historical transition of the post-war English society.Snow’s anxiety arose from his political and utilitarian considerations as he advocated the centrality of science in school education in order to protect the British interest against the Americans and Germans in scientific competition and the ideological rivalry of the Soviet Union.Leavis suffered from the truly cultural anxiety as he was frustrated by the erosion of English cultural tradition by the American commerc
作者
欧荣
Ou Rong(School of International Studies,Hangzhou Normal University,Hangzhou 311121,China)
出处
《浙江大学学报（人文社会科学版）》
CSSCI
北大核心
2021年第1期222-231,共10页
Journal of Zhejiang University:Humanities and Social Sciences
基金
国家社科基金重大项目(12&ZD172)
关键词
英国
两种文化之辩
斯诺
利维斯
转型焦虑
文化观念
UK
Two Cultures Debate
C.P.Snow
F.R.Leavis
transitional anxiety
idea of culture
