The Literature of Knowledge and the Literature of Power(Excerpt) By Thomas de Quincy What is it that we mean by literature? Popu

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问题 The Literature of Knowledge and the Literature of Power(Excerpt)
By Thomas de Quincy
What is it that we mean by literature? Popularly, and amongst the thoughtless, it is held to include everything that is printed in a book. Little logic is required to disturb that definition. The most thoughtless person is easily made aware that in the idea of literature one essential element is some relation to a general and common interest of man—so that what applies only to a local, or professional , or merely personal interest, even though presenting itself in the shape of book, will not belong to Literature. So far the definition is easily narrowed; and it is as easily expanded. For not only is much that takes a station in books not literature; but inversely, much that really is literature never reaches a station in books. The weekly sermons of Christendom, that vast pulpit literature which acts so extensively upon the popular mind—to warn, to uphold, to renew, to comfort, to a-larm—does not attain the sanctuary of libraries in the ten-thousandth part of its extent. The Drama gain—as, for instance, the finest of Shakespeare ’ s plays in England, and an leading Athenian plays in the noontide of the Attic stage-operated as a literature on the public mind, and were(according to the strictest letter of that term)published through the audiences that witnessed their representation some time before they were published as things to be read; and they were published in this scenical mode of publication with much more effect than they could have had as books during a-ges of costly copying or of costly printing.

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答案 知识之文学与力量之文学(节选) 托马斯.德.昆西 我们所谓文学是指什么?对一般人,尤其是对那些懒于思考的人而言,文学即印人书本的一切。无需借用逻辑我们就可推翻这一定义。即便最愚笨的人也可轻易使他明白,文学的一个本质就在于它对人类普遍、共同问题的关注,因此,那些仅着眼于局部、职业、或只属于个人兴趣的文字,纵使凭借了书本的形式,也不可妄称文学。这样,文学就被框定在一个较窄范围之内。不过,它的定义如要拓宽一二,也很容易。许多依凭书本的文字称不上文学,反之,很多真正属于文学的东西也从未以书本的形式存在过。基督教会每周的布道文,那些广泛而深远地影响着公众心智,对其或规劝、或弘扬、或重申、或宽慰、或警示的数不胜数的文稿,它们在图书馆的圣殿中所占位置也不过万分之一。再看戏剧,以英国莎翁最杰出的剧作及雅典鼎盛时期所有的经典剧目为例,这些作品在公众心目中无疑堪称文学,但在刊印出来供人阅读之前,它们实际上就已通过观众“发表”了(从最严格的意义上讲)。也许,舞台表演在版权和印刷都极为昂贵的那个时代要比书本具有更大的影响。

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