「鏡裡的另一張臉」：吳爾芙的鏡子情結及其作品中之鏡子意象

"The Other Face in the Glass": Virginia Woolf's Looking-glass Phobia and the Mirror Images in her Works

曾瑞華(Laurie Jui-hua Tseng)

指導教授 ： 史文生

國立臺灣師範大學/文學院/英語學系/博士(2012年)

摘要

本論文旨在探討吳爾芙藉鏡子意象探索意識如何透過反思機制之形塑與再現而以具體形象呈現於人面前之過程。探討範圍包括其一生對鏡子又愛又懼之複雜情結、其在鏡中所驚見之「另一張臉」(「一張動物的臉」)、以及其在作品中對鏡子之映射功能以不同形式在人一生中所產生之不同影響所作之探索。研究動機除對吳爾芙晚年在其回憶錄中所提及之鏡子恐懼與其於作品中多處以鏡子為意象探索反思機制所呈現之矛盾感到好奇，亦對其在回憶錄中所驚見之「另一張臉」感到興趣。綜合相關文獻對此神秘之臉之詮釋，(包含德薩佛所主張之「誘惑者之臉」、海門所提出之「其父之臉」、斯奎爾所言之「全天下男人之臉」以及豪爾德所持之「吳爾芙多元自我之投射」)，本論文除提出「『鏡子裡的另一張臉』即吳爾芙因受誘惑者之啟蒙而開發之多元自我」之論點，亦嘗試論證吳爾芙在其作品中多處藉鏡子意象探索多元自我所留下之足跡即其藉誘惑者之引誘/權宜深入慾望禁區所創作之文學。易言之，吳爾芙即其自身之誘惑者，而其藉書寫探索多元自我之媒介(即文學)即提供吳爾芙認識自我、探索自我與創作自我之最佳明鏡。其一生對面對鏡子與多元自我又愛又懼之複雜情結因而在文學創作的介面中找到了最好的轉移與出路。
就理論架構而言，為論證「吳爾芙在鏡中所驚見如動物般之『另一張臉』即吳爾芙因受誘惑者之啟蒙而開發之多元自我」，必先確認「誘惑者與被誘惑者在心理機制上有著相當程度的認同關係」。為論證此點，論文第一章因而援引佛洛依德之「誘惑理論」，藉以導出「誘惑者在某種程度上實為被誘惑者之想像」之論點。誠然，對站在被誘惑者立場並為其伸張社會公平正義的評論家(如梅森)而言，佛洛依德之誘惑理論(尤其指其後來之發展)極可能因過於偏向對被誘惑者之主觀認知與其創傷記憶與形成之研究而忽略對誘惑事件與對誘惑者社會道德與法律責任之追究，然而，既然被誘惑者因誘惑事件而引發之歇斯底里症候(如自我否定與恐懼症)明顯屬於心理問題，本文故而主張暫時擱置對吳爾芙誘惑事件真實與否之探討，並採用佛洛依德心理分析之路徑分析吳爾芙如何由誘惑創傷走向對誘惑者之認同、並藉文學創作發掘多元自我之心路歷程。
第二章以第一章所論證之「誘惑者與被誘惑者在心理機制上有著相當程度的認同關係」為基礎，正式進入吳爾芙一生與其鏡影邂逅並從中獲得省思之探討。以吳爾芙於其回憶錄中所提及之鏡子情結與其在鏡中所驚見之「另一張臉」為起點，本章要以論證「『鏡子裡的另一張臉』即吳爾芙因受誘惑者之啟蒙而開發之多元自我」，除此之外，本章並援引吳爾芙於〈牆上的記號〉一文中所揭櫫之「鏡射理論」，用以作為吳爾芙對現代文學創作所提出之見解與宣言：「當我們在公車或地鐵站彼此互視的那一剎那，我們即在彼此的鏡射中看到自己‧‧‧，未來的小說家將越來越了解這些鏡射的重要性‧‧‧，因為這些相互輝映之鏡射是無限的，它們所延伸之深度即現代小說家們所要探索的，它們所產生之幻影即現代小說家們所要捕捉的。」最後，本章並指出吳爾芙因對鏡射與反思機制之深刻省思，故而在其一生之文學創作過程中探索了鏡射之於人生之三層作用與影響：物質世界之表面鏡射、心靈世界之內在鏡射、以及鏡射過程之鏡射。自第三至第五章，本文即分別以吳爾芙早期之《出航》、中期之《海浪》、及其晚期之《幕之間》為例，揭櫫吳爾芙如何在這三部小說中展現她對鏡射與反思機制之於人生之三層省思。
第三章以解讀《出航》之鏡子意象為研究重點。內容包括探討女主角瑞秋如何受只能反映外在物質世界之鏡影影響以致只能自卑自憐、最後甚而芳華早逝之悲劇、此單一鏡射(或反思機制)如何受父權價值之形塑、以及更多與瑞秋有相同命運的「維多利亞女兒」(如吳爾芙)如何能走出只能反射物質世界之單一鏡射以及受父權宰制之反思機制或語言結構，以獲得最後之解脫。在小說中，瑞秋甚不滿意自己的鏡影，當她反思她與達洛威先生之情慾邂逅便覺罪孽深重，而當她站在劍橋學子聖約翰(在小說中，他曾被明喻為一面鏡子)的面前，她更常因被當成無知的女人而感到自慚形穢，作為吳爾芙的第一部小說，《出航》確實反映作者在成為作家以前所受之創傷及其對如何能走出其「維多利亞女兒」之命運所作之深刻反思。
第四章主要分析《海浪》之鏡子意象。不同於《出航》中反映單一物質表象之鏡子意象，在《海浪》中，鏡子主要反映人的內在意識。因每個人的內在意識只反映其自身之心靈/語言結構，故人與人之間的溝通與交流相當困難。以六個好友站在鏡前所自述之內在獨白為例，本章旨在揭櫫既然每個個體來自不同背景、有著不同思考邏輯與語言結構，其分別站在鏡前所作之獨白與呈現於鏡中之影像亦殊。透過鏡子意象，《海浪》因此可謂傳遞了吳爾芙(或甚至現代主義文學)一向青睞的主題：意識的內在反射性與人與人之間溝通的困難性。
第五章進入吳爾芙對鏡射功能與反思機制之第三層省思，亦即：具有再現功能之鏡射機制(在小說中曾被擴及為吳爾芙一向認定對戰爭形成有推波助瀾之功效的歷史劇、集體意識或國家意識)不應只呈現截去鏡射或再現形成過程之鏡影，而應同時呈現所有鏡射或再現形成之過程，即使如此真實之再現勢將使得最後呈現之鏡影繁雜無序、如「混雜品」一般。為論證吳爾芙在其一生最後的小說《幕之間》特意強調再現過程之再現，第五章分三方面陳述其理：第一，以深入生活現實核心之報紙對照威爾斯之《歷史綱要》，要以呈現報紙所鏡射之真實並不亞於歷史，第二，以伊莎於三面鏡中所窺得之面容全貌為例，說明人之多元複雜並非單一鏡射所能涵照，第三，以拉托普在其歷史劇最終幕〈我們自己〉所安排之多重鏡射為例，強調多數歷史劇均為單一觀點之鏡射，欲破解其單一性，唯有藉著拉托普所設計之多重鏡射，重現再現過程，才能提醒觀眾不陷入單一鏡影之迷思。
總結而言，本論文要以探討吳爾芙一生對鏡射與反思機制之省思，綜合本論文之研究，本文結論並提出：綜合其一生對鏡射與反思機制之省思，吳爾芙認為反思機制既然對於形塑意識有具決定性之重要性，如何能藉創作與書寫達成多重反射、以解消單一反射所形成之僵固性因而成為是否能得到自我救贖的關鍵。文末，本文並援引西蘇於〈美杜莎之笑〉對當代女性之鼓舞作為總結：直視美杜莎之美，捨棄透過鏡子之反思機制看世界，因為反思機制固然形塑意識、美化真實世界，但不免失去其最真實的一面，唯有不斷書寫、不斷行動，才能不斷創造真實。吳爾芙不斷書寫的一生，亦即其以多重反思破解單一反思的一生。

關鍵字

吳爾芙 ； 出航 ； 海浪 ； 幕之間 ； 鏡子 ； 鏡映 ； 反思 ； 誘惑理論 ； 原初自戀 ； 鏡像期理論 ； 錯誤自我認知 ； 凝視理論 ； 意識浪 ； 歷史劇 ； 三面鏡 ； 滑稽理論

並列摘要

This dissertation aims to explore Woolf’s encounters with the mirror both in her life and in her works. Relevant issues include her ambivalence with regard to confronting herself in the mirror (her desire to confront and her paradoxical fear of so confronting herself), her mysterious encounter with “the other face in the glass”—“the face of an animal”—while she was looking in a mirror as a young girl, and her reflections on the diverse roles of mirrors in her life and private imaginative world. My interest in investigating Woolf’s “mirror issues” was motivated by two questions she asked herself in her memoir regarding her fascination with the mirror. The first concerns her ambivalent attitude toward the mirror; the second concerns her mysterious encounter with “the other face in the glass” whether in her dreams or in her imagination. As for the first question, based on Woolf’s self-analysis in her memoir—i.e. her anxiety about the tomboy code she shared with Vanessa, her fear of violating the puritanical streak she inherited from her paternal ancestry, and her feeling of shame on looking at her own body after being seduced by her half- brother— I argue that her looking-glass phobia may come down to her fear of confronting her self, a self that has in some way been debased by the male order or tarnished by male violence. Based on this argument, I propose to investigate Woolf’s second question, that is, “whose face is the other face in the glass?”, from the perspective of her traumatic encounter with and ambivalent attitude toward male violence, at least within the male-centered value system she received from her father.
In a sense, to argue that the “the other face in the glass” is both Woolf’s seducers and her own double means assuming that the seducers are inseparable from the seduced. To argue this point, I thus devote my first chapter to an exploration of Woolf’s seduction mystery from the perspective of Freud’s seduction theory, since according to Freud the seduction “event” can be purely psychological. And then, based on the self-reflexivity of the whole seduction issue as discussed at the end of Chapter One, in the second chapter I propose that “the other face in the glass” is actually the exteriorization of Woolf’s inner double. In the first two chapters of this dissertation, then, I mainly deal with Woolf’s early traumas, especially those that are related to her looking-glass complex, and their impact on her.
In Chapters Three, Four and Five, I mainly deal with Woolf’s mirror images in her three novels The Voyage Out, The Waves, and Between the Acts. I am interpreting these novels in terms of the three levels of the mirror’s function of “reflecting life” in Woolf’s writings. Thus in The Voyage Out, mirrors are used only via their first-level function as representational apparatuses of the external world, which render a faithful image of everything that is reflected in them just as it normally appears, no matter from what or whose perspective it is viewed. In The Waves, mirrors take on their second-level function of representing the fluid stream of consciousness of those who look at/into them, that is, they now display not just the exterior forms of “viewers” but their self-consciousnesses, now embodied as mirror reflections. In Between the Acts, mirrors function (like narrative fiction itself) on a more fully dialectical level, representing (reflecting) the unconscious structure of viewers’ psychical operations, not just their manifest self-reflections (level 2) but also what lies hidden from themselves in these self-reflections, though it may become clear to others (level 1); such reflections or representations now taken on a deeper reality, as if they were the mirror reflections of characters’ real lives.
In the Conclusion, entitled “living and writing: a reflection on reflection,” I argue that after following Woolf’s development from a Victorian daughter intrigued with her own mirror reflection into a mature woman who explored the diverse functions and influences of the mirror in/on life, and after looking at the multi-leveled functions of the mirror in these three novels, we can finally see the degree to which Woolf wants to “see through” the illusoriness of life as it appears to us and of the social and political discourses that dominate our thinking, for the latter too are in a sense nothing but mirror reflections, virtual images. Hélène Cixous in “The Laugh of Medusa” draws on the myth in which Perseus kills Medusa—the hideous witch who turns to stone any man who looks directly at her face—by seeing her reflected image in his polished shield, in order to argue that the illusory image (here of “woman”) created by the mirror is like the illusory power of logocentric male rationality. Here I follow Cixous in arguing that we should stop approaching the world via the mediation of the mirror, itself the reflective mechanism of (male, phallogocentric) ideology and socio-cultural conditioning. If the other face in the glass is her (our) multiple selves then like Cixous’ “laugh of the Medusa” it is not horrible; rather, it is beautiful and full of the energy of life.

並列關鍵字

Virginia Woolf ； The Voyage Out ； The Waves ； Between the Acts ； mirror ； reflection ； seduction theory ； primary narcissism ； mirror stage theory ； meconnaissance ； gaze theory ； the wave of consciousness ； pageantry ； three-folded mirror ； comic theory

參考文獻

Kolocotroni, Vassilik. “’This Curious Silent Unrepresented Life’: Greek Lessons in Virginia Woolf’s Early Fiction.” Modern Language Review 100.2 (2005): 313-322.

Holly, Marcia. “Consciousness and Authenticity: Towards a Feminist Aesthetic.” Feminist Literary Criticism: Explorations in Theory. Ed. Josephine Donovan. Lexington: The UP of Kentucky, 1975.

Brecht, Bertold. Brecht on Theatre. Ed. and Trans. John Willet. London: Eyre Methuen. 1964.

Bazin, Nancy Topping, and Jane Hamovit Lauter. “Virginia Woolf’s Keen Sensitivity to War.” Virginia Woolf and War. Ed. Mark Hussey. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1991. 14-39.

Bell, Quentin. Virginia Woolf: A Biography. 2 volumes. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972.