2024年3月8日发(作者：)

Who Ruined the Humanities?

LEE SIEGEL LEE SIEGEL

You've probably heard the baleful

你大概已经听说过那些惨不忍睹的调查上月美国人文与科学院(American

reports. The number of college

报告。students majoring in the humanities is

Academy of Arts & Sciences)发布的一plummeting, according to a big study

项大型研究结果显示，主修人文学科的released last month by the American

大学生人数在直线下降。这一消息引发Academy of Arts & Sciences. The

了海量评论文章，这些文章站在道德制news has provoked a flood of

高点上，慨叹人文专业学生的减少是美high-minded essays deploring the

国衰落的迹象和征兆。

development as a symptom and

portent of American decline.

But there is another way to look at this

Michael Kirkham但我们也可以从另外supposed revelation (the number of

一个角度看待这一所谓的发现（人文专humanities majors has actually been

业大学生人数其实从20世纪70年代就开始下降了）。

falling since the 1970s).

The bright side is this: The destruction

光明的一面是：人类对人文的戕害终于of the humanities by the humanities is,

要告一段落了。作为学术课程的文学不finally, coming to a halt. No more will

会再扑灭炽热的文学之火。阅读《李尔literature, as part of an academic

王》(King Lear)或D.H.劳伦斯(D.H.

curriculum, extinguish the

Lawrence)的《恋爱中的女人》(Women

incandescence of literature. No longer

in Love)不会再从让灵魂升华的邂逅沦will the reading of, say, 'King Lear' or

为本科生涯的另外两个元素──成为多D.H. Lawrence's 'Women in Love'

选测验、考试论文和作业中让人头疼的result in the flattening of these

内容。

transfiguring encounters into just two

more elements in an undergraduate

career″the onerous stuff of

multiple-choice quizzes, exam essays

and homework assignments.

The disheartening fact is that for every

令人沮丧的事实是，虽然有少数学生能college professor who made

有幸遇到把莎士比亚(Shakespeare)或Shakespeare or Lawrence come alive

劳伦斯讲得栩栩如生的大学教授（英国克莫德(Frank Kermode)在for the lucky few″the British scholar

学者弗兰克·Frank Kermode kindled Shakespeare

我的脑海中点燃了永恒的莎士比亚之into an eternal flame in my head″there

火），但也有无数教授让阅读文学名著were countless others who made the

感觉就像在牙医诊所的椅子上坐上两小在他们麻木的手中，“人文学科”reading of literary masterpieces seem

时一样。like two hours in the periodontist's

一词变成了“你不去上课也能得A”的代

chair. In their numbing hands, the term

号。

'humanities' became code for 'and you

don't even have to show up to get an

A.'

When people wax plaintive about the

在人们为人文学科的命运慨叹不已时，fate of the humanities, they talk, in

他们谈得特别多的是英语专业的缓慢消particular, about the slow extinction of

亡。但他们没有看到，大多数英语专业English majors. Never mind that the

学生会进入法律和广告等其他领域，非preponderance of English majors go

英语专业学生也一样可以修文学课程。into other fields, such as law or

根据当前危言耸听的论调，大批将四年advertising, and that students who

时间主要用于研究小说、诗歌和戏剧的don't major in English can still take

人全都站在我们与社会文化的夜幕之literature courses. In the current

间。

alarming view, large numbers of

people devoting four years mostly to

studying novels, poems and plays are

all that stand between us and

sociocultural nightfall.

The remarkably insignificant fact that,

半个世纪之前，有14%的本科生主修人a half-century ago, 14% of the

文学科（主要是文学，此外还有艺术、undergraduate population majored in

哲学、历史、古典学和宗教学），而如the humanities (mostly in literature, but

今这一比例降至7%，这个事实其实无also in art, philosophy, history, classics

足轻重，却引起了人们对人文教育本质and religion) as opposed to 7% today

和目的的严肃反思。

has given rise to grave reflections on

the nature and purpose of an

education in the liberal arts.

Such ruminations always come to the

这类反思通常会得出同样的结论，我们same conclusion: We are told that the

被告知：缺乏正规人文教育（尤其是文lack of a formal education, mostly in

学教育）会导致许多致命的人格缺陷，literature, leads to numerous

比如批判性思维欠缺，写不出表达清晰pernicious personal conditions, such

的文章，不能换位思考，对其他人和地as the inability to think critically, to

方缺乏好奇心，毕业后不会去阅读文学write clearly, to empathize with other

名著，无法辨别真、善、美。

people, to be curious about other

people and places, to engage with

great literature after graduation, to

recognize truth, beauty and goodness.

These solemn anxieties are grand,

这些严肃的忧思俨然一副冠冕堂皇、居lofty, civic-minded, admirably virtuous

高临下、正气凛然、高风亮节、亮节高

但它们也是多愁善感的幻想。

and virtuously admirable. They are

风的派头。also a sentimental fantasy.

The college teaching of literature is a

大学里教授文学是一个相对较新的现直到19世纪末，文学才成为大学课relatively recent phenomenon.

象。Literature did not even become part of

程的一部分。在此之前，所谓人文学科the university curriculum until the end

包括学习希腊语和拉丁语，而在教堂里of the 19th century. Before that, what

学习《圣经》(Bible)是完整教育的另一came to be called the humanities

半必要组成部分。根本没有人想要通过consisted of learning Greek and Latin,

正规课程教授小说、故事、诗歌和戏剧。while the Bible was studied in church

这些都属于日常生活中的消遣。

as the necessary other half of a full

education. No one ever thought of

teaching novels, stories, poems or

plays in a formal course of study. They

were part of the leisure of everyday

life.

（左）和莎士比亚（右）With the waning of religious authority,

Getty Images济慈the humanities were born as a means

随着宗教权威的衰落，人文学科作为取of taking up the slack. Chaucer, Milton

代宗教的方式应运而生。乔叟and Shakespeare were now put in the

(Chaucer)、弥尔顿(Milton)和莎士比亚service of ministering truth to souls

开始承担起帮助渴求更高意义的心灵寻parched for higher meaning. Anything

找真理的职能。不过，文学课程中很少more contemporary than

包括莎士比亚时代之后的作品。（我在Shakespeare, however, was seldom

哥伦比亚大学(Columbia)读本科时发part of the curriculum. (As an

现，英语系每年都在曼哈顿白页undergraduate at Columbia, it

(Manhattan White Pages)上把访问学S.乔叟

delighted me no end to discover that

者的电话号码列在弥尔顿·这个发现让我the English department listed the

(Milton S. Chaucer)名下，telephone number of the visiting

乐不可支。查询这个电话号码（我经常professor each year in the Manhattan

查询）让我乐在其中。）

White Pages under the name 'Milton

S. Chaucer.' Looking the number up,

as I often did, enchanted me.)

文学教育在20世纪The teaching of literature came into its

随着文学系的建立，own early in the 20th century, with the

初取得了独立地位。在许多年里，文学formation of literature departments.

系里主要是一些研究词源和文本历史的For years, these consisted mostly of

文献学者。直到第二次世界大战之后，philologists who examined etymology

文学研究才作为一种与真实现代生活相and the history of a text. It was only

关的智慧在文学系广泛落地生根。

after World War II that the study of

literature as a type of wisdom, relevant

to actual, contemporary life, put down

widespread institutional roots.

In a sense, the story of teaching

从某种意义上来说，文学教育作为一种literature as a profession is a story of

专业是战争的产物。1945年，见证了杀war. Soldiers returning home in 1945

戮并幸存下来的士兵返回家园，他们渴yearned to make sense of their lives

望为生活赋予意义。《退伍军人权利法after the carnage they had witnessed

案》(GI Bill)的颁布和经济的繁荣让他们and survived. The GI Bill and an

有机会和时间来做这件事。当时，将文abundant economy afforded them the

学教育作为探究人生中的难题的方式激opportunity and the time to do so. In

起了深刻的共鸣。英语专业的发展达到that moment, teaching literature as an

了顶峰，然而，正是文学在大学里的这investigation of life's enigmas struck a

一段流行期敲响了文学没落的丧钟，因deep collective chord. Majoring in

为各式各样抱有偏见的学究加快了文学English hit its zenith, yet it was this

艺术的学术化。

very popularity of literature in the

university that spelled its doom, as

tendentious pedants of various stripes

accelerated the academicization of

literary art.

In contrast to the effects of World War

与第二次世界大战的影响形成反差的II, the purposeless bloodshed of the

是，越南战争中无谓的流血让所有权威Vietnam War made all authority

都受到质疑。当时，文学教育沾染了特suspect. That was when teaching

别浓重的意识形态热情，大学里的激进literature acquired an especially

派在学术机构里踏上了漫长的征程（他intense ideological fervor, when

们的征程徒劳无功），他们以“理论”为university radicals started their long

武装，以掩饰平庸。也正是在那个时候，(and fruitless) march through

主修英语的学生开始缓慢减少。再往下academic institutions armed with that

就是今天发生的事情了。

fig leaf for mediocrity known as

'theory.' And that was when majoring

in English began its slow decline. The

rest is today's news.

Only a knave would applaud the

有一些书籍能够培养我们的同理心、好falling-off in the formal study of books

奇心，提升审美品位和道德修养，在针that cultivate empathy, curiosity,

对这类书籍的正规研究走向衰落时，只aesthetic taste and moral refinement.

有无赖才会喝彩。但对文学进行学术研But the academic study of literature

究根本不会带来这些裨益。

leads to nothing of the sort.

More than 50 years ago, the critic and

Gallery Stock你可以在生活中——在捕professor Lionel Trilling expressed his

鲸船上或大树底下——体味文学，把这

frustration with presenting imaginative

些地方当成你的大学课堂——你的耶鲁在50多年前，评论家兼教授莱writing in the classroom in an essay

和哈佛。特里林(Lionel Trilling)在一篇题titled 'On the Teaching of Modern

昂内尔·《论现代文学教学》(On the Teaching

Literature.' It was published in 1961, a

为time when majoring in English was in

of Modern Literature)的文章中表达了他对在课堂上介绍虚构文学作品之举的its heyday.

失望。这篇文章发表于1961年，当时英语专业正处于全盛时期。

Trilling observed that the modernist

特里林指出，他的教学大纲中包含的现literature he had on his syllabus″Eliot,

代派文学作品（艾略特(Eliot)、叶芝Yeats, Lawrence, Proust, Kafka,

(Yeats)、劳伦斯、普鲁斯特(Proust)、Mann, Gide″'asks every question that

卡夫卡(Kafka)、曼(Mann)、纪德(Gide)is forbidden in polite society. It asks us

的作品）“问及文明社会所忌讳的所有问if we are content with our marriages,

题。现代派文学问我们对婚姻，对家庭with our family lives, with our

生活、职业生活，对我们的朋友是否满professional lives, with our friends.' He

意”。然后他讽刺了大学教授努力让本科then rolled his eyes at professorial

生理解这类离经叛道作品的特性的做这是他戏拟的一道文学课典型试题：efforts to convey the character of such

法，outlaw works to undergraduates,

“叶芝、纪德、劳伦斯和艾略特都运用性mocking a typical exam question for

主题来批判现代文化的缺陷，请对他们his course: 'Compare Yeats, Gide,

在性主题运用方面的异同进行比较。请Lawrence, and Eliot in the use which

援引每位作家作品的具体内容来论证你they make of the theme of sexuality to

的观点。（时间：一小时）”

criticize the deficiencies of modern

culture. Support your statement by

specific references to the work of each

author. [Time: One hour.]''

Trilling was exasperated by the

在恪守传统道德的大学领地里教授颠覆absurdity of teaching morally

道德规范的现代派作品的荒谬性触怒了subversive modernist works in the

特里林，使他在一定程度上歇斯底里地morally conventional precincts of a

夸大了所谓现代派文学的“武力和恐怖”university, to the point where he

（恐怖存在于叙利亚，而不是纪德的作somewhat hysterically exaggerated

品）。但他毕竟是一名大学教师，他看what he called the 'force and terror' of

不出课堂教学也破坏了文学的乐趣，并modernist literature (there is terror in

把文学中令人震撼的异见变得琐碎化。

Syria, not in Gide). But he was, after

all, a college teacher, and he was not

able to see that the classroom also

ruins literature's joys, as well as

trivializing its jolting dissents.

Literature changed my life long before

文学很早就改变了我的生活，当时我还

I began to study it in college and then,

没开始上大学，也还没有不幸糊里糊涂in a hapless trance, in graduate

地进入研究生院。生于普通家庭的我怀school. Born into modest

着惊异扎进了于连·索雷尔(Julien

司汤达(Stendhal)《红与黑》(The

circumstances, I plunged with wonder

Sorel，into the turbulent emotions of Julien

Red and the Black)一书中年轻浪漫的Sorel, the young romantic striver of

奋斗者)激荡的情感世界。我父母曾在家Stendhal's 'The Red and the Black.'

中争吵，他们的婚姻矛盾最后以离婚告但契诃夫(Chekhov)的小说赋予我力My parents might have fought as their

终，marital troubles crashed into divorce,

量，小说中的措辞道出了我的忧伤，而but Chekhov's stories sustained me

济慈的语言让我心中充满了美，击退了with words that captured my sadness,

让我陷入沮丧的负能量。

and Keats's language filled me with a

beauty that repelled the forces that

were making me sad.

Books took me far from myself into

书籍带我远离自我，去体验同我的生活experiences that had nothing to do

没有任何关联、却能与之对话的经历。with my life, yet spoke to my life.

阅读荷马(Homer)的《伊利亚特》(Iliad)Reading Homer's 'Iliad,' I could feel the

时，我能够感受到一种神秘的力量，这uncanny power of recognizing the

种力量是在我了解完全陌生的人的情感emotional universe of radically alien

世界时产生的。叶芝给予我一种特殊的people. Yeats gave me a special

语言，这种语言能够描述一种定义自我language for a desire that defined me

的渴望，而以前我从来没有意识到这种“去摘采/哪怕地老天even as I had never known it was

渴望发自我的内心：mine: 'And pluck till time and times are

荒/月亮的银苹果/太阳的金苹果。”

done/The silver apples of the

moon/The golden apples of the sun.'

But once in the college classroom, this

但一进入大学课堂，我内心中这种珍贵precious, alternate life inside me got

的另类生活就被扔回到令我感到烦恼厌thrown back into that dimension of my

倦的存在维度之中了。荷马、契诃夫和existence that vexed or bored me.

叶芝沦为是非判断题、鲜明的主题以及Homer, Chekhov and Yeats were

一大堆高明和更高明的解读。教师像讲reduced to right and wrong answers,

授自然科学和社会科学一样教授对事实clear-cut themes, a welter of clever

进行加工创造的文学书籍，这些书本身and more clever interpretations. Books

沦为了纯粹的事实。小说、诗歌和戏剧that transformed the facts were taught

曾是同理心的源泉，是激发好奇心的火like science and social science and

种，现在则成了乏味的苦差和劳碌。

themselves reduced to mere facts.

Novels, poems and plays that had

been fonts of empathy, and

incitements to curiosity, were now

occasions of drudgery and toil.

Every other academic subject requires

所有其他学科都要求具备专门知识、掌specialized knowledge and a mastery

握技能和方法。而文学则只要求你是一of skills and methods. Literature

个人。文学无须去教，就像梦想也不需为什么赫克特(Hector)的幼子requires only that you be human. It

要教一样。does not have to be taught any more

阿斯蒂阿纳克斯(Astyanax)看到父亲戴than dreaming has to be taught. Why

上头盔后会哭泣？你只要有一颗心就能does Hector's infant son, Astyanax, cry

够理解。

when he sees his father put on his

helmet? All you need to understand

that is a heart.

So you see, I am not making a brief

所以，我写这篇文章并不是要反对阅读against reading the classics of

西方文学经典。不，绝非如此。我反对Western literature. Far from it. I am

的是把这些令人惊异的顿悟（这些顿悟against taking these startling

来自人类生命中非理性、无可言表、无epiphanies of the irrational, unspoken,

法想象的侧面）带进大学课堂，把它们unthought-of side of human life into the

变成竞赛中枯燥的练习题、等级体系和college classroom and turning them

信息的堆砌，它们都是这些作品不共戴into the bland exercises in competition,

天的死敌。

hierarchy and

information-accumulation that are

these works' mortal enemies.

The notion that great literature can

不要以为伟大的文学作品能帮助你更清help you with reading and thinking

晰地阅读和思考，这其实也是妄想。只詹姆斯(Henry James)疙clearly is also a chimera. One page of

要读一页亨利·Henry James's clotted involutions or

疙瘩瘩、错综复杂的文句或者D.H.劳伦D.H. Lawrence's throbbing verbal

斯令人心悸的词语重复，你就会把所谓repetitions will disabuse you of any

文学具有修辞范本价值的想法统统抛到conception of literature's value as a

脑后。西方文明中的文学名著其实彰显rhetorical model. Rather, the literary

出了所谓清晰思维的局限。它们在由联直觉和印象拼缀的云雾中呈现意义。masterworks of Western civilization

想、demonstrate the limitations of

莎士比亚的一些十四行诗无人能懂。用so-called clear-thinking. They present

语言镇住读者，而把含义隐藏在重重迷their meanings in patchwork-clouds of

幻的意象中的能力正是这些作品非同寻associations, intuitions, impressions.

常的特质。

There are sonnets by Shakespeare

that no living person can understand.

The capacity to transfix you with their

language while hiding their meaning in

folds of mind-altering imagery is their

rare quality.

The literary classics are a haven for

文学经典为我们思索人类之困惑，思索

that part of us that broods over mortal

苦难、死亡和稍纵即逝的快乐的心灵提bewilderments, over suffering and

供了避难所。它们庇护着我们秘密的自death and fleeting happiness. They

我，这个自我希望思索物质世界弥足珍寻求表达过于绚烂多彩、are a refuge for our secret self that

贵的非凡之处，wishes to contemplate the precious

无法诉诸理性表述的感受。在这个鄙视singularity of our physical world, that

一切非盈利、非生产性活动的世界，文seeks out the expression of feelings

学是僻静、无用的清寂之所。

too prismatic for rational articulation.

They are places of quiet, useless

stillness in a world that despises any

activity that is not profitable or

productive.

Literary art's sudden, startling truth

文学艺术那种突然迸发、令人震撼的真and beauty make us feel, in the most

和美让我们感觉到（这种感觉发自内心solitary part of us, that we are not

最孤独的角落），我们并不孤单，有一alone, and that there are meanings

些金钱买不到、无法出售或交易、也不that cannot be bought, sold or traded,

会腐朽和死亡的意义。这种从社会和经that do not decay and die. This socially

济角度来看毫无价值的体验被称为“超and economically worthless

越”，你不可能为此布置一篇论文，给出experience is called transcendence,

评分或成绩排名。文学太神圣了，不可and you cannot assign a paper, or a

以去教。文学只应该被阅读。

grade, or an academic rank, on that.

Literature is too sacred to be taught. It

needs only to be read.

At the present moment, we are

当前，我们在经历全新数字快感和娱乐experiencing the rise of new digital

的兴盛，经历以视觉为主流的文化的扩pleasures and distractions, the

张（把想象远远甩在了后面），还有无expansion of a mostly visual culture

处不在的社交网络（改变了阅读艰深书that races far ahead of the

籍所需的纯粹孤独）。在这个职场环境imagination, the ubiquity of social

迅速变化的时代，生活中重大的神秘谜networks that redefine the pure

题似乎更关乎经济，而不是关乎存在。solitude once required for reading a

数字环境还强调量化思维，也许这能够demanding book. And in this time of

帮助我们解释为什么如今最激动人心的rapid changes in the workplace, life's

文化发展是在科学和制药领域取得的。

great mysteries seem more economic

than existential. A digital environment

also stresses quantitative thinking, and

perhaps that helps explain why the

most exciting cultural advances are

now in science and medicine.

It is hardly a surprise that in this

在这种氛围中，大学生选择与他们日常

atmosphere, college students choose

生活关系最密切的领域作为主修专业也to major in fields that are most relevant

就不足为奇了。这对文学来说是多大的to the life around them. What a

幸事啊。在艺术中凝固为永恒的伟大思blessing that is on literature. Slipping

想和感触从爬满常青藤的狱门里逃脱出out from behind ivied prison doors,

来（在监狱里，它们成了供人品评的“文where they have been forced to labor

本”，被迫做着苦役），得以回归应有的as evaluative 'texts,' the great thoughts

位置，重新成为平凡经历中的独特组成and feelings made permanent by art

部分。

can resume their rightful place as a

unique phase of ordinary experience.

Anyway, we have all been sufficiently

不管怎么说，到高中毕业时，文学之火sparked and stoked by literature to

已经在我们所有人的心中充分燃烧起make it part of our destiny by the time

来，足以成为我们命运的组成部分。如we graduate high school. If there is

果说有什么东西值得忧虑的话，那应该any hand-wringing to do, it should be

是文献检索课的取消。文献检索课曾是over the disappearance of what used

每所高中的必修课，在这门课上，书不to be a staple of every high-school

是作为学术课程来教，而是被亲密地引education: the literature survey course,

荐──这是一种不受愚蠢书评和乏味测where books were not academically

验影响的经历。如果能够恢复并强化这taught but intimately introduced″an

种震撼心灵的邂逅，那么刚走出高中校experience impervious to inane

门的朝圣者们会继续阅读，并像追求爱commentary and sterile testing.

情一样寻找那些能够提升境界的经典文Restore and strengthen that

学作品。

ground-shifting encounter and the

newly graduated pilgrims will continue

to read and seek out the transfiguring

literary works of the past the way they

will be drawn to love.

And just as we do not need to know

我们无须了解生物学和生理学就能够爱about biology and physiology in order

和被爱，我们也无须通过了解荷马的修to love and to be loved, we do not

辞或历史背景走进奥德修斯(Odysseus)need to know about, for example,

漂泊、重生和返乡的旅程。古典书籍会Homer's rhetoric or historical context in

与我们心灵中最年长的那个部分对话。order to enter into Odysseus's journey

年轻人会在被一种无法言表的渴望打动of wandering, rebirth and

时去阅读这些书籍（就像当他们感到饥homecoming. The old books will speak

饿时会吃饭一样），如果他们想读的话。在这些可怜的非人文专业学生中，to the oldest part of us. Young people

当然，will read them when they are touched

有一些可能对文学根本不感兴趣。也许by inexpressible yearnings the way

他们只得去寻找诸如癌症治疗方法之类they will eat when they are hungry. If

的东西。

they want to. Some of these pitiable

non-humanities majors might not be

interested in literature at all. They

might have to settle for searching for a

cure for cancer, and things like that.

In 'Moby-Dick,' Melville's narrator,

在《白鲸》(Moby-Dick)一书中，梅尔维Ishmael, declares that 'a whale-ship

尔(Melville)的讲述者伊什梅尔was my Yale College and my Harvard.'

(Ishmael)宣称：“捕鲸船是我的耶鲁是我的哈佛(Harvard)。”Soon, if all goes well and literature at

(Yale College)，last disappears from the

如果一切顺利，文学最终从本科课程中undergraduate curriculum″my fingers

消失（但愿如此），很快就会有越来越are crossed″increasing numbers of

多的人能够说，在大学课堂之外，在生people will be able to say that reading

活中阅读文学经典其实是他们的大学课the literary masterworks of the past

堂。

outside the college classroom, simply

in the course of living, was, in fact,

their college classroom.

Mr. Siegel is the author of four books,

（Siegel写过四本书，最近一本是《你most recently, 'Are You Serious: How

是认真的吗：怎样在愚蠢的时代做个真to Be True and Get Real in the Age of

实、真诚的人》(Are You Serious: How

Silly.' to Be True and Get Real in the Age of

Silly)