王佐良先生在中國的外國文學研究和批評領域作出了重大的貢獻。他不僅是一位有著嚴謹學風的文學研究者,同時也是一位才華橫溢且有著自己獨特風格的作家—學者型批評家。他的外國文學批評特色在于一切從閱讀原文入手,不從某種既定的理論視角去評論作品,而是基于自己對原作的透徹理解,并結合該作家及其作品所產生的特定時代背景作出自己的評論。他的文學批評實踐及其成就具體體現于這三個方面:首先,他對中國人編寫英國文學史有著自己獨特的見解和立場。其次,他在英國詩歌研究方面有著很深的造詣。不同于那些學究式的理論家,他用詩一般的語言來評點詩歌,使人感到他與所評論的詩人在進行交流和對話。第三,他早就自覺地將英國文學置于世界文學的背景下來評價,并十分關注英國文學所受到的包括中國文學在內的所有民族/國別文學的啟迪和影響。作者認為,在撰寫中國當代外國文學批評史時,王佐良是一位無法繞過的文學批評大家。

Professor Wang Zuoliang has made tremendous contributions to China’s foreign literature studies and criticism. He was not only a literary scholar with a rigorous way of research but also a brilliant writer-scholarly critic with his own style. His foreign literature criticism is characterized by analyzing the text in the original, never commenting on literary works from a given theoretical perspective, but rather, based on his own thorough understanding of the original text, making his judgment by considering the specific historical background in which the writer and his work are produced. His critical achievements chiefly lie in the three aspects: Firstly, he has his own Chinese vision and stand on which to write an English literary history. Secondly, unlike those pedantic theorists, he has profound attainments in English poetry study. Commenting on poetry in a poetic language, he could carry on direct dialogues with the poets reviewed by him. Thirdly, he has long realized that English literature should be observed and evaluated in the context of world literature and thereby paid particular attention to the inspirations that other national literatures, including Chinese literature, have given to English literature. The present author holds that in writing the history of contemporary China’s foreign literature criticism, Wang Zuoliang is an important critic that we cannot get around.