英文摘要 |
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” has been read by some critics as a metapoietic tale about the symbolic process, by others as a historical inquiry into the genesis of modern subjectivity from the Puritan conception of original sin. This essay attempts to synthesize these interpretations, arguing that the rise of interest in the figural nature of language and modern conceptions of individuality are closely correlated effects of the transition from a stratified to a functionally differentiated society, as it is described by Luhmann’s theory of social systems. Mr. Hooper’s veil can be seen as standing for Hawthorne’s conception of a modern form of literary art that would be able to express the indelible difference between consciousness and communication—a central theme of Romanticism. The veil both disrupts communication and ensures that this disruption is itself understood as a communicative act. Likewise, the language of literature disrupts ordinary language and ensures that this disruption does not terminate communication, but is instead received as a gesture towards a higher level of meaning. Learning to read such literature is to understand silence as communication. |