- 期刊
Madness and Techniques of the Self in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ＂The Yellow Wallpaper＂
瘋癲的解讀與自我技術：以夏洛特．帕金．吉爾曼的《黃壁紙》為例
摘要
美國女作家兼女性主義者，夏洛特．帕金．吉爾曼（Charlotte Perkins Gilman），在1892年出版的短篇作品《黃壁紙》（The Yellow Wallpaper）常被評論者認定為一部探討當時女性如何被父權論述中對於「瘋癲」（madness）之定義所約束的代表作，其中也牽涉了當時醫學對於產後憂鬱症之了解及不當治療。此種「流行病似」（epidemic）地解讀《黃壁紙》的態度暗示著：在精神病學的範疇裡，以及在詮釋文學作品中那些所謂精神異常的角色之過程裡，女性的反常行為大多只被認定為某種疾病的徵兆。此類強調精神疾病的解讀模式，大多建立於女性所表現之所謂「異常」的精神狀態或「非正統」的行為模式此類負面前提上，而這樣的前提有其不正當之處。米歇爾．傅柯（Michel Foucault）在1975年的一場演講中，把將「心理異常」與「心理疾病」畫上等號的研究方法形容為一種把個體權威式地、強迫式地「心理症化」（psychiatrization）的過程。由此，我們應該試著採取不同的態度來面對那些常被不證自明地定義為「瘋癲」之女性的偏差行為，以期在解讀心理異常的現象時能有所突破。如同狂犬病的流行一般，真正在社會中流行的不完全是疾病本身，而是人們對於此疾病的解讀及誤解。此文以一種較正面的態度重新閱讀吉爾曼的《黃壁紙》，並試圖解讀其故事女主角如何在父權所定義之「瘋癲」的影響下，仍能展現出一種傅柯所追求的屬於自我、強調自我的技術（the techniques of the self），並探討個體的生存自由如何在權力操縱之下表現其自我。同時，此文認為《黃壁紙》中所呈現之對同伴的需求則凸顯了傅柯式的自我技術之不足。最後，此文會簡略地反思傅柯式的自我技術於社會中實現的可行性。
並列摘要
Conventionally, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's ”The Yellow Wallpaper” is often considered by critics as a representation of a woman's transformation under the patriarchal discourse of madness, especially as a medical case of female postpartum depression and the outcome of its ill treatment. This ”epidemic” reading indicates how female madness has been taken as nothing more than a psychiatric symptom defined by male authorities in the understanding of mental abnormality. However, this negative presupposition on women's abnormal behavior and their unorthodox creations are seriously problematic. Michel Foucault, in a lecture delivered in 1975, also expresses his concern for this academic ”psychiatrization” of abnormality. Therefore, we should take a different stance and critically reflect upon the too-easily-determined cases of mental illness, including those of madness that have been generally taken for granted in the reading of female aberration. Like the spread of rabies, what really circulates in society is not the disease itself, but the interpretations and misinterpretations of it. This article takes a more positive attitude to Gilman's ”The Yellow Wallpaper” and attempts to present the female narrator's techniques of herself in defiance of the patriarchal power-discourse of madness. Next, the article will further use the narrator's desire for companionship as a supplement to the weakness of the Foucaudian paradigm of self-technique. Finally, the article will briefly reflect upon the freedom in madness presented in ”The Yellow Wallpaper” and discuss the dilemma between power, personal freedom, and one's responsibility for others.