今年逝世的M.H.艾布拉姆斯是20世纪西方文学理论界屈指可数的泰斗级人物,其理论概括的“四要素”作为一个亚里士多德式的学术大前提,一直被中国学者未经深刻反思地挪用为一切文学现象的基本框架。一旦揭示了艾布拉姆斯的基本学术训练背景和对话语境,搞清楚他所依赖的历史主义哲学,就能发现其著《镜与灯》并非一部纯粹的理论著作,其背后的用意是通过文学观念史和文化史的梳理,保存并重启西方传统的活力。艾布拉姆斯这种回归历史传统与经典细读的浪漫主义文论研究模式,至今值得借鉴和重新阐发。 MH Abrams, who died this year, is one of the few top-level figures in Western literary theory in the 20th century. The “four elements” summarized in his theory has been used as an Aristotelian academic premise by China Scholars have not diverted themselves to the basic framework of all literary phenomena without deep reflection. Once Abrams’s basic academic training background and dialogue are revealed and the philosophy of historicism upon which he relied is clear, his “mirror and lamp” can be found not as a purely theoretical work but with the intention behind Through the combing of the history of literary ideas and cultural history, the traditional vitality of the West is preserved and restarted. Abrams’s return to historical traditions and classical reading romantic literature research mode, it is worth learning and re-elucidated so far.