作者、作品、读者： 18世纪欧洲文学公共领域的建构

文学公共领域是解读18世纪欧洲启蒙运动的一个有益视角。启蒙运动一方面是对以人为本的个人主体性的强调,另一方面是对理想社会公共性的期待。启蒙运动的这两个核心要素分别融入到18世纪作者文本创作、作品流通、读者阅读的实践之中。个人主体性与社会公共性的互动主导了由作者、作品、读者三者参与的实践话语,它们的语言交往行为是公众舆论发展及公共领域形成的依托。作者—作品之间的文本生产关系、作者—读者之间的文学批评关系,这两者的互动成就了公众舆论实践话语,在这种语言交往行为中,文学公共领域得以形成。文学公共领域借助文学作品,即以美学形式呈现的语言交往行为实践,推动民众在表达个人主体性思想的基础上凝练共识,成就社会公共性,实现政治变革。

Authors,Books and Readers: The Construction of Literary Public Sphere in the 18th Century Europe

Literary public sphere is a good perspective through which the Enlightenment Movement in the 18th century Europe can be fully studied. On the one hand, the Enlightenment Movement lays emphasis on the personal subjectivity which is rooted in the spirit of humanism; on the other hand, it indicates the expectation for the publicness of the ideal society. Personal subjectivity and social publicness, two key elements of the Enlightenment have seeped into the practices of authors' textual production, the readers' personal reading and the circulation of literary works. The practical discourse in which authors, literary works and readers are involved is dominated by the interaction between personal subjectivity and social publicness. The communicative action through language is the basis for the development of public opinions, and the formation of the public sphere as well. This article aims to explicate the nature of literary public sphere and the process of its formation through an analysis of the interaction between authors, literary works and readers. The interaction between the textual production of authors and literary works and the literary criticism of authors and readers has created a practical discourse of public opinions. It is in this communicative action through language that literary public sphere comes into being. By virtue of literary works, namely the practice of communicative action through language in the form of aesthetic representation, literary public sphere motivates people to form the consensus on the basis of presentation of personal subjective ideas, and develop the social publicness, in which the political reform is actualized. The formation of literary public sphere with the literary works as the media is the joint efforts between authors and readers. Authors' personal ideas are published as books, whose value is realized in the process of dissemination. Henceforth, social consciousness is formed. Readers' personal reading practice lays the foundation for the social enlightenment and consensus. People of the 18th Century built personal subjectivity, and constructed social consensus through literary works. Literary works become the convergence of various relationships between authors, readers, marketplace and society, which is presented to the modern scholars in the form of literary public sphere.