The anxiety of influence unbound. Shelley’s Prometheus and Philippide’s Prometheus in the looking glass

Q3 Arts and Humanities
Sorin Ciutacu
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Abstract

The paper draws a brief parallel between the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Prometheus Unbound (1820) and of the Romanian Alexandru Philippide The Banishment of Prometheus (1922). It starts from the Greek writers’ image of Prometheus in Hesiod’s Works and Days and Theogony and in Aeschylus’ Prometheus Unbound. It also discusses Harold Bloom’s theory as it analyses the potential anxiety of influence of the Greek writers on Shelley and Philippide and it shows forth this effect seen as a “revisionary ratio” and named by Bloom (1973) a tessera, which means “completion and antithesis”. Both authors create a complex Prometheus character who holds multiple facets. Both authors shape Prometheus as a figure that contains the Western core of values, be they positive or negative. Prometheus actually commits the original sin for man’s sake. This haughty act can be compared to the biblical theft of forbidden knowledge. The author claims that the aim of this theft and the punishment meted out to Prometheus by Zeus are destined to estrange man from nature and from God and to push man into hubris. These also kindle man’s Faustian propensity which turns man into his own divinity, or which recasts the divinity according to man’s own design. If Shelley’s Prometheus turns out to be the Romantic hero achieving moral and intellectual perfection, being uplifted by authentic, selfless and noble goals, Philippide’s Prometheus is the disillusioned, bitter hero from a well-wrought ars poetica, who seeks another mankind on whom to bestow his love and selfless goodwill gestures. His poem represents a symbol of the artist living in his ivory tower failing to be understood by his fellow beings.  
不受影响的焦虑。雪莱的《普罗米修斯》和菲利皮德的《望远镜中的普罗米修斯
本文对珀西-比希-雪莱的作品《无束缚的普罗米修斯》(1820 年)和罗马尼亚作家亚历山德鲁-菲利皮德的作品《普罗米修斯的放逐》(1922 年)进行了简要的比较。文章从希腊作家在赫西俄德的《作品与日》和《神曲》以及埃斯库罗斯的《普罗米修斯之放逐》中塑造的普罗米修斯形象入手。它还讨论了哈罗德-布鲁姆的理论,因为该理论分析了希腊作家对雪莱和菲利皮德影响的潜在焦虑,并指出这种影响被视为一种 "修正比率",布鲁姆(1973 年)将其命名为 "tessera",意为 "完成与对立"。两位作家都塑造了一个复杂的普罗米修斯形象,他具有多个侧面。两位作者都将普罗米修斯塑造成一个包含西方核心价值观的人物,无论是正面的还是负面的。普罗米修斯实际上是为了人类而犯下原罪。这种傲慢的行为可以与《圣经》中盗窃禁忌知识的行为相提并论。作者认为,宙斯对普罗米修斯偷窃的目的和惩罚,注定会使人类远离自然和上帝,并将人类推向狂妄。这也点燃了人的浮士德倾向,将人变成自己的神,或者按照人自己的设计重塑神性。如果说雪莱笔下的普罗米修斯是实现了道德和智慧完美的浪漫主义英雄,他因真实、无私和崇高的目标而振奋,那么菲利皮德笔下的普罗米修斯则是一个失意的、痛苦的英雄,他从精心创作的诗歌中寻找另一个人类,将他的爱和无私的善意姿态赐予他们。他的诗象征着生活在象牙塔中的艺术家无法被同类理解。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies
Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies Arts and Humanities-Visual Arts and Performing Arts
CiteScore
0.20
自引率
0.00%
发文量
25
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