Abstract: Coleridge in Biographia Literaria distinguishes two kinds of poetry: one is “directed to persons and characters supernatural” and the other gives “the charm of novelty to things of every day”. The criterion is whether the reader of a poem needs to adopt the “willing suspension of disbelief”. In Coleridge's opinion, the excellence of the first kind represented by his “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Christabel” consists “in the interesting of the affections by the dramatic truth of such emotions”, which invests the poetic fiction with realistic quality. Most of Wordsworth's poems belong to the second kind, whose stress on “low and rustic life” is deprecated by Coleridge. However, against the scientific backdrop in the late-eighteenth and the early-nineteenth centuries, both kinds of poetry form certain nexus with the brain science burgeoning during the Romantic period. Coleridge believes that dreaming is the highest example of the “willing suspension of disbelief”, which involves the utter suspension of the volition and the materialization of the “impulses from within”. Wordsworth derives instantaneous aesthetic pleasure from the suspension and restoration of the visual sense, accentuating the fundamental importance of “organic sensibility” to the subject's poetic perception.

Key words: Samuel T. Coleridge, William Wordsworth, suspension of disbelief, dream, organic sensibility, brain science

摘要： 柯勒律治在《文学传记》中区分了两类诗歌:一类“关注超自然人物和角色”,另一类“为日常事务赋予新奇魅力”。他的区分标准是读者阅读诗歌时是否需要“自愿悬置怀疑”。在他看来,前一类诗歌的卓越之处来自“情感的戏剧化真实带来的趣味”,它为虚构的诗意幻想蒙上真实的面纱,他自己的“古舟子咏”和“克丽斯特贝尔”就属于这一类。华兹华斯的大部分诗歌则属于后一类,且因其注重“微贱的田园生活”而遭到柯勒律治的贬低。然而,在18世纪末至19世纪初的科学背景下,柯勒律治和华兹华斯分别代表的两类诗歌都与浪漫主义时期兴起的脑科学形成耦合关系。柯勒律治认为做梦是“自愿悬置怀疑”的最高形式,此时人的意志处于完全悬置状态,“来自内部的冲动”得以浮现。华兹华斯从视觉感官的悬置和恢复中体验到瞬间的美感,强调“官能敏感性”是主体诗意感知的基础。

关键词: 柯勒律治, 华兹华斯, 悬置怀疑, 梦, 官能敏感性, 脑科学