How Romantic is a Romance?: Sir Kenneth's Aesthetic Experiences in Walter Scott's the Talisman

10.30095/SYJH.200812.0006

郭如蘋(Ruby Ju-Ping Kuo)

符咒 ； 美 ； 雄渾 ； 美感經驗與判斷 ； 康德 ； The Talisman ； the beautiful ； the sublime ； aesthetic experiences and judgment ； Immanuel Kant

中山人文學報

26期（2008 / 12 / 01）

77 - 103

英文

部分批評家對於史考特的小說缺乏美學有所怨言，並責難其作品缺少教化與某種「神聖、激勵人心之音」《符咒》是同時受到讚揚與批評的小說之一。因此探討《符咒》是否表達了美學應是有趣的議題。此小說發表於康德《判斷力之批判》之後，很容易被認定爲只與雄渾有關。然而，至少在小說的兩個事件中，一發生於印喀地禮拜堂，另於聖喬治山峰，小說家再現了美與雄渾的精髓，兩者分別呼應了特殊的美感判斷。美感與道義照定義似爲毫無關聯的兩種學科，但康德的美學理論卻使之產生結合。本文討論康氏兩則〈分析〉中分別提到的「無私性」以及道德性，藉以檢視對此兩事件作康德式的閱讀是否可行。本文最後企圖回應在康德的美學意涵裡，傳奇有多令人依戀。

Some critics during the previous two centuries complained about the lack of aesthetics in Sir Walter Scott's novels and also accused him of tacking edification and a ”divine awakening voice.” Among the Waverley Novels, The Talisman is one of the novels that has received both acclamation and criticism. It will thus be interesting to explore whether aesthetics finds expression in The Talisman. Written in the Romantic period and after the publication of Immanuel Kant's critique of Judgnment, the novel can be easily acknowledged as a text only about the sublime since it mostly deals with kings, princes and knights and their heroic deeds. Yet, in at least two scenes, one in the Engaddi chapel and the other on St. George's Mount, the novelist represents the essence of both the beautiful and the sublime, respectively corresponding to a special kind of aesthetic judgment. Aesthetics and morality may appear to be two unrelated disciplines by definition, yet Kant’s aesthetic theory incorporates them. Focusing on the major concept of disinterestednesss in the ”Analytic of the Beautiful,” and on an oblique relationship between the sublime and morality in the ”Analytic of the Sublime,” this paper examines whether a Kantian reading of the above two scenes is possible. Even though the vital element of disinterestedness has an asymmetrical significance in. and an asymmetrical proportion between Kant's two Analytics. this ”disproportion” happens to lit the purpose of the present study. A final attempt is 10 answer how romantic is The Talisman in a Kantian sense.

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