286 Samuel Johnson
P1: SJ neoclassical literary critic underscore the need for telling
P2:J’s critical method had much in common with Romantics which neoclassical tradition conflict but SJ was well aware
P3:JS’s sentiment(观点,看法) endorsed by Romantics。这种jettison(摆脱)criticism laws的写法更直接的appeal readers’ emotion. AC praises J
P4: poetic diction J’ views are still “modern” J is the opposite of the neoclassical poets(which erects barriers), J put reader closer contact with poem’s subject
P1:提出Johnson的风格
许多读者假设,文学批评家Samuel Johnson倾向于文学作品中的abstract,formal,regulated to the concrete, the natural and the spontaneous。
但是对Johnson评论的解读表示出他不会忽视文学中特别细节的重要性。
他会强调telling比accidental detail的重要性。
286. Samuel Johnson
P1:与其他readers不同,作者认为J并非对文学中直接、生动、具体的细节的重要性视而不见,而且更强调telling的必要性,而不仅仅是accidental detail
P2:J的批评方法也与浪漫主义者的批评方法有很多共同点
- the sterility of literary criticism that is legalistic or pedantic
= the case with the worst products of the neoclassical school
- against the slavish following of the “three unities” of classical drama
- his defense of the supposedly illegitimate “tragicomic” mode of Shakespeare’s latest plays
P3:J因为他所展现出来的经验主义很容易得到浪漫主义者的赞同
- e.g. 他没有因为Addison’s Cato迎合了时代的正确性而盲目追捧那部作品
P4:在诗歌的措辞方面,J的看法也十分modern:诗歌的措辞应该服务于直接的情感冲击和易于理解的目的,而不是虚假的深刻或浮夸
- he defends the use of a special diction in poetry
- “Words too familiar,” he wrote, “or too remote, defeat the purpose of a poet.
- 诗歌的措辞能让读者与诗歌主题的“事物”更紧密地接触