文学与思想的关系似乎是一个难以回答的问题。一方面,诸多文学史著作总是倾向于使用古典主义、现实主义、现代主义以及存在主义这类源于哲学研究的术语,来指认不同时期的文学创作,暗示着文学是思想与理论表达的另类形式。然而另一方面,作家在文学作品中容纳思想的种种努力,却常常遭到人们的质疑。美国哲学家博厄斯(George Boas)就曾表示:“诗歌中的思想往往是陈腐的、虚假的,没有一个 The relationship between literature and thought seems to be an unanswerable question. On the one hand, many works of literary history always tend to use the terms derived from philosophical research such as classicism, realism, modernism and existentialism to identify literary creation in different periods, implying that literature is an alternative way of expressing ideas and theories form. On the other hand, however, the efforts of writers to contain ideas in literary works are often questioned. George Boas, an American philosopher, once said: ”The ideas in poetry are often stale and false, none of them