1992年，Frances Ferguson的著作Solitude and the Sublime表明浪漫主義文學中「崇高」與無人居住的自然之強烈關係。Ferguson和新歷史主義對浪漫主義文學的批評，其焦點為浪漫主義詩人們所呈現置於大自然中「崇高」的社會歷史面向，卻限制浪漫主義文學裡，對「崇高」的研究範圍。此論文回顧Ferguson的著作，以便回應其著作裡把「崇高」表現成傾向獨處、排斥社會的美學類別，並且探討柯立芝著作裡對此議題的另類觀點。重視柯立芝的三種體裁－哥特式民謠、會話詩、和其文學自傳Biographia Literaria，「崇高」可被視為具有重塑社會性的一種體驗。在哥特式民謠以及會話詩裡，同情扮演「崇高」概念化過程中極為重要的角色，缺乏同情或同情關係的瓦解都會間接造成社會性的崩壞，也會使「崇高」轉換成未緩和的恐懼。Biographia Literaria不再把焦點放在人與人之間較不穩定的同情情感，而是轉向尋找新的語言及體裁，以穩固「崇高」的社會基礎。如同華茲華斯，柯立芝的著作也重視大自然的參與，並賦予大自然較有限的功能，對柯立芝而言，自然只不過是促進個人理解「崇高」的概念，並進而目睹生命真理的場域。總言之，此論文嘗試透過柯立芝著作的分析，擴展浪漫主義所呈現「崇高」的解釋範圍，並提供未來學術研究，重新檢視「崇高」經歷裡同情所扮演的角色，以重塑社會性，此為「崇高」最終的目標。

In 1992, Frances Ferguson’s Solitude and the Sublime noted a strong association between the sublime and unpopulated nature in Romantic works. By focusing on socio-historical aspects in the Romantic poets’ representations of the sublime in nature, Ferguson’s interpretation along with New Historicist critiques of Romanticism restrict the scope of explorations of the sublime in Romantic writings. This thesis returns to Ferguson’s text in order to address the limitations of reading the sublime as a solitude inclined, socially averse aesthetic category and to provide an alternative perspective to the issue through the writings of Coleridge. The possibility of literary representations of the sublime as an experience that potentially reconfigures sociability is approached from three innovative genres adopted by Coleridge: the genres of gothic ballads, conversation poems, and the Biographia Literaria. In the gothic ballads and the conversation poems, sympathy plays a crucial role in Coleridge’s conceptualization of the sublime. A lack or breakdown of sympathy, which dissolves human sociability, also turns sublime feeling into unmitigated terror. Biographia Literaria turns away from relatively more volatile forms of interpersonal sympathy towards establishing institutions through new language and genres to further stabilize the social basis for the sublime. Coleridge’s writings, like Wordsworth, also includes nature, but to a limited extent. Nature, to Coleridge, only acts as a site that facilitates apprehension of the sublime that enable glimpses into the truth of life. Overall, this thesis attempts to expand the interpretations of Romantic representations of the sublime through Coleridge’s different genres and to offer the possibility for future studies to reconsider sympathy’s role as part of the sublime in reconfiguring sociability.

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