“公共领域”与“革命批评”话语——论伊格尔顿《批评的功能》中的政治性

在《批评的功能》一书中,伊格尔顿用“公共领域”来隐喻政治意识形态,认为一切文学批评理论都是从属于政治的。而且这种“政治性”在他的论述框架中,一般不是指文学与政治之间的那种含蓄又复杂的关系,而是直接指与专制政权作斗争,即文学和文学批评是从属于这种斗争的,至于文学和文学批评独立于政治斗争之外的内在规律以及审美特性,则基本不在其理论探讨的范围之内。伊格尔顿观念中的政治斗争成为规定和统率文学批评的动力。除此之外,伊格尔顿在研究中不但把“大众”和“精英”、民众普及与学术研究对立起来,甚至还有意识地遮蔽和取消了批评理论自身所存在和拥有的价值。因此,伊格尔顿是一位反对纯理论、纯学术和自由人文主义的批评家;他的《批评的功能》,其实也包括伊格尔顿的整个文学批评体系,都是一种“革命批评”的话语体系。
Abstract：In The Function of Criticism, Terry Eagleton uses the term “public sphere” to indicate political ideology and believes that all literary theories are of politics. In his theoretical framework, this “politicalness” usually refers to the struggle against the authoritarian regime rather than the complex and ambiguous relationship between literature and politics. In other words, literary criticism for him is subject to this kind of struggle. The internal law and aesthetic characteristics of literature and literary criticism, which are independent of this kind of struggle, are not included in his discussion. Therefore in this sense, political struggle for Eagleton becomes the dynamics for defining and governing literary criticism. Moreover, Eagleton set the public against elites, the populace against the academic research. He deliberately shields off and rules out the value that critical theory has. Based on this perspective, the author of the present essay contends that Eagleton is a critic who opposes the so-called pure theory, pure academics and free humanism. The critical discourse in his The Function of Criticism, rather, in the whole system of his literary criticism, is revolutionary.