英文摘要 |
The reception of Hippolyte Taine in Victorian England features as one of the crucial incidents in the context of its rich and diversified cross-cultural literary historiography—Taine’s book on History of English Literature changed the way of talking about the Romantic School in the anglophone world. In particular, the Frenchman’s representation of Byron catalyzed Matthew Arnold’s canonization of the Romantic poet. It is argued that there was a touchstone effect that mediates as well as displaces Arnold’s critical position of Byron. This essay begins by giving a survey of English readers’ immediate reception of Taine, and then it focuses on the interchange between Arnold and Taine with regard to the image of Byron. Unlike other English critics who dismiss Taine’s work, Arnold on the one hand draws on the Frenchman’s perception, and on the other consolidates his touchstone theory as a strategy of reading, resulting in a revision of the concepts of literary criticism and canon. His efforts not only justify the value of Taine’s work but also the position of Byron in the canon of English literature. |