DIDACTIC LITERATURE, is literature that has as its major purpose the instruction or guidance of the reader, particularly in moral or religious matters, but also in politics, science, and other affairs. All literature may be considered didactic to some degree in that it exists to communicate some emotion, fact, or idea, but a work is called “didactic” if what the author intends to communicate takes precedence over artistic quality.

说教文学，是以指导或引导读者为其主要目的的文学，尤其是在道德或宗教事务中，也包括政治、科学和其它事物。在某种程度上，所有文学都可被认为是说教的文学，因为它的存在是为传达某些情感、事实，或观念，但如果作者想传达的东西优先于艺术性，那么一部作品就可称为“说教”。

A basic controversy in literary criticism centers on the question of whether a work should be judged primarily by its didactic qualities or by its artistic qualities. Plato insisted that art should be judged on its didactic qualities; he banished Homer from the ideal state outlined in the Republic for Homer’s unflattering portrayal of the gods. Aristotle, on the other hand, insisted in his Poetics on the primacy of the self-consistent work of art. Critics have since tended to espouse either Plato’s or Aristotle’s position. The Roman poet Horace, in his Ars Poetica, tried to reconcile the two views by giving art a dual function—to instruct and to please.

文学批评中的一个基本争议，集中在评判一部作品应该主要看它的说教性，还是艺术性的问题。柏拉图坚持认为，艺术应该根据它的说教性来判断；他从《理想国》概括的理想状态中驱逐了荷马，因为荷马对诸神有损形象的描绘。另一方面，亚里士多德在其《诗学》中坚持关于自洽的艺术作品的首要性。从此，评论家们要么支持柏拉图的观点，要么拥护亚里士多德的立场。罗马诗人贺拉斯在其《诗的艺术》中试图通过赋予艺术双重功能---指导和取悦，来调和这两种观点。

Among the great didactic masterpieces are Lucretius’ De rerum natura and Virgil’s Georgics, both written in the 1^st century B. C. Most medieval literature was didactic, and didactic works flourished again in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. The 20 century saw a reaction against didacticism in the triumph of “art for art’s sake.”

其中重要的说教杰作有卢克莱修的《物性论》和维吉尔的《农事诗》，两者都写于公元前1世纪。大多数的中世纪文学都是说教的，而在18和19世纪说教作品再次繁荣起来。在20世纪，“为艺术而艺术”的巨大成功见证了针对说教主义的回应。

                                       C. HUGH HOLMAN

                              Coauthor of “A Handbook of Literature”

                                         C. 休·霍尔曼

                                    “文学手册”的合著者

                                                     2024年1月27日译

（译者注：该词条位列《大美百科全书》1985年版，第9卷，第89页）