| 摘要: | 欲洞悉我們所處的時代以及未來該走的路，就必須立足於過去。以現代文學，也 就是即將落幕的時期之文學而言，就是要回溯其進入二十世紀之初的起點。年輕的雨果．馮 ．霍夫曼斯塔爾（ Hugo von Hofmannstahl ），毫無疑問地就是當時傑出的詩人之一。 以 其對於西方文化傳統的藝術性探討以及對真理的渴求，足可視為在一八九○年代頹廢主義和 世紀末論戰中，找尋新的創作方式的新生代代表之一。 一般認為，很早便成名的霍夫曼斯塔爾在一九○○即開始對語言產生嚴重的質疑（即所謂「 語言的危機」）， 他在一九○二所杜撰的一封信， 就是所謂的＜參道思書信＞（ Chandos-Brief ）（事實上是一篇散文），可為明證。然而，雖然在一八九八年之後，霍夫 曼斯塔爾確實再也沒有寫過特別值得一提的詩作，但卻仍有許多評價頗高的其他作品。同時 ，＜參道思書信＞本身就證明著他依然善於辭令，因此以上的結論顯然有待商榷。回顧霍夫 曼斯塔爾在世紀轉折點的著作時，可以發現當時他正處於一種逐漸自我認知的過程中。本文 試圖證明此一發展過程， 對於以自然主義以及尼采（ Nietzsche ）為出發點的內在探索而 言，有其必然性。同時，在＜參道思書信＞中對於語言的懷疑，亦顯示出現代作家對這個世 界認知的轉變，因此 Chandos-Brief 在這個過程中是具有示範意義的。
Modernism is gone, definitely, and the new epoch struggle their way through a seemingly confusing mix of ethic and aesthetic ideas in all scopes of life. Literature, as a kind of art, and literary theory, both are well reflecting this process that makes us ponder about where all this pluralism is tending to. Rather often we find ourselves as amazed, as were the foreboding minds of the Young Generation at the turn into the 20 ��. century. One of them was the outstanding Austrian poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal, scarcely adult already front-rank within a new artistic circle in Vienna that helped found modernism. Thanks to the wide range of his educational background, his capacity in ancient and recent European tongues, and the sensitivity and sharpness of his mind, he proved as the representative person to cross European tradition and the new conceptions coming in from the Western borders of Europe. In 1898, that young genius apparently stopped writing his highly praised lyrics, to the great lament of his contemporaries. Then, after a silence of roughly four years, he published his famous fictitious letter by the young poet Lord Chandos complaining the unbridgeable void of language to Francis Bacon, which was commonly mistaken for the testimony of a deep artistic crisis, sealed up once and for all. Generally, it would be neglected that this letter properly took the form of an essay, one of superb eloquence! From a comparison of the young Hofmannsthal's works ensues no crisis, nor break but a steady evolvement of his personality and art. Hence, the following paper tries to get down to that process which was incited by avant-garde disgust of naturalism and propelled by the veneration for Nietzsche. Hofmannsthal, as will become evident, did not stick to the surface of a debated conflict that was coined as fin-de-siecle or decadent. His problem was not mere aesthetic and less springing from the concern about the questionability of language. Fervently his consciousness struggled for a crucial change in his comprehension of life and society, forming the model of a modern poet's ambiguous view of the world. |
