高贵野蛮人(英语:Noble savage,法语:Bon sauvage),是一种理想化的土著、外族或他者,尚未被文明「汙染」,因此代表著人類天生的良善,也是一种文学著作中的定型角色

本杰明·韦斯特新古典主义历史画作沃尔夫将军之死(The Death of General Wolfe,局部),描绘了理想化的美洲土著。 [1]

这个词,在英语世界里面,第一次出现在约翰·德莱顿英雄詩劇(Heroic drama)征服格拉纳达(The Conquest of Granada,1672年)中,剧中,一名伪装为西班牙穆斯林的基督教亲王,自称为高贵野蛮人。不过,这个词后来成为了对感伤主义(Sentimentalism)中的“天生绅士”(Nature's gentleman)的称呼。1851年后,这个词成为了修辞手法中的矛盾语。企图切断自己和18世纪“阴柔”的感伤主义和19世纪浪漫的原始主义(Primitivism)的联系的查尔斯·狄更斯就有一篇杂文,是以“高贵野蛮人”为题的。[2]

注释

编辑
  1. ^ Fryd, Vivien Green. Rereading the Indian in Benjamin West's "Death of General Wolfe". American Art. 1995, 9 (1): 75. JSTOR 3109196. 
  2. ^ See Grace Moore, "Reappraising Dickens's 'Noble Savage'", The Dickensian 98:458 (2002): 236-243. Moore speculates that Dickens, although himself an abolitionist, was motivated by a wish to differentiate himself from what he believed was the feminine sentimentality and bad writing of female philanthropists and writer such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, with whom he, as a reformist writer, was often associated.