上演北愛衝突：北愛爾蘭戲劇中的記憶、時間與倫理

本論文主要探討1980年代北愛爾蘭戲劇中關於集體與個人記憶的政治與倫理等相關議題。論文所涉及的劇本包含克里絲蒂娜．瑞德的《一個中式瓷杯中的茶》（1983）與《我的名字，我應該告訴你我的名字嗎？》（1989）、法蘭克．麥可基尼斯的《迦太基人》（1988）、與史都爾．帕克的《聖靈降臨節》（1987）。除此之外，本論文也會論及布萊恩．傅利爾的《城市的自由》與戴夫．達肯的《一個官方調查的諸多場景》這兩部劇作。論文的開頭首先介紹本論文的研究主題、相關背景與問題意識、上述劇作的文獻回顧、以及接下來的章節概述。正文的第一個章節會以主題的方式回顧與整理北愛爾蘭20世紀下半葉所謂的「衝突戲劇」，並且說明為何採用記憶研究的路徑與觀點可以對當代（北）愛爾蘭戲劇帶來新穎的貢獻。第二章則接續上一章繼續說明當前愛爾蘭記憶研究中常見的風潮與主題，並且概述此論文在研究方法上會採用的相關概念與論述。第三章則大略陳述在文學與文化研究之外，當前正處於和平進程與衝突轉化階段的北愛爾蘭如何在政治、法律與社會層面看待與實踐記憶，以便了解記憶與遺忘的議題與問題是如何深入北愛爾蘭人的日常生活之中。論文的第四章會透過記憶研究的社會與文化理論來研究克里絲蒂娜．瑞德的《一個中式瓷杯中的茶》（1983）與《我的名字，我應該告訴你我的名字嗎？》（1989）。此章聚焦於個人與群體記憶的關係，尤其著重在跨世代記憶機制在北愛英國國族主義新教徒家庭中的重要性，並將深入考掘與其記憶文化息息相關的時間性。除此之外，本章會進一步探討女性記憶在親英新教徒社群裡的邊緣化狀況，並透過兩部劇作裡兩位年輕女主角的性別視野挑戰所處社群裡父權陽物中心的記憶文化與紀念儀式。藉由在親英新教徒群體記憶中神聖不可侵犯的兩場聖戰，亦即17世紀末愛爾蘭的博因河戰爭與20世紀初第一次世界大戰的法國索姆河戰役，如何分別被兩位女主角的另類觀點所質疑與改寫，本章將申論親英新教徒集體遺忘與記憶政治的問題所在。最後，此章會討論兩部劇作如何藉由性別介入帶出「去政治化」記憶的契機與朝向未來記憶的倫理可能。論文的第五章主要討論法蘭克．麥可基尼斯的《迦太基人》（1988），並與同樣以北愛爾蘭血腥星期日為主題的布萊恩．傅利爾的《城市的自由》與戴夫．達肯的《一個官方調查的諸多場景》這兩部劇作相互對照閱讀。此章大致採用創傷記憶與敘事的理論角度來書寫作為倖存者或受害者的親屬如何面對與處理血腥星期日的創傷經驗，特別著重在他者的介入與交互敘事是否真能導向個別主體療癒的可能性，以及此創傷經驗如何形塑地方感。此外，此章也會進一步透過性別的角度闡明愛爾蘭國族主義武裝團體對血腥星期日所形塑的主流集體記憶如何影響男性倖存者的罪惡感知與加劇創傷延遲。簡言之，此章主要剖析《迦太基人》如何透過私密與個人敘事與表演儀式的方式來深入處理英國政府對天主教社群行使國家暴力的集體創傷經驗及其問題。第六章藉由史都爾．帕克的《聖靈降臨節》分析北愛兩大宗教與政治社群的和解之可能。以1974年阿爾斯特工人理事會罷工為背景，此劇將不同性別位置、宗教信仰與政治認同的五位角色置於北愛首府北爾法斯特的一棟典型親英新教徒勞工階層的老舊房舍之中。這一章首先以1974年五月的罷工事件為背景，探索所謂的英國國族認同與北愛新教徒的區域認同之間的糾葛與矛盾。此章接著闡明北愛爾蘭特有的各種有形與無形的邊界政治與思考，然而會進一步解析邊界概念作為超克北愛教派主義的可能性。奠基於前面的討論，此章接下來會剖析此劇所揭櫫倫理的記憶，一種面向未來與他者的記憶機制。而這種記憶的倫理又如何與基督教教義中關於愛的理論產生關聯。本章最終論證基於宗教與世俗思維下的愛的倫理記憶如何展現打破北愛僵化的認同邊界政治與其封閉的記憶時間感性的可能性。作為結論的最後一章首先論及當前英國脫歐之後北愛爾蘭邊界問題所引發的焦慮與爭議，並指出北愛與英國社會對於上個世紀下半葉北愛衝突時期的重新記憶的風潮。呼應當前的政治脈絡，此章進一步回溯前面透過劇本與記憶相關的討論來總結記憶在北愛的文化政治中的功能與問題，但也會論證記憶可以與可能在對立身分政治下的另類可能與實踐。在北愛衝突的脈絡之中，倫理記憶不僅能轉化既有的對立身分、文化與政治，也可能進一步重新想像與形塑面向他者與未來的嶄新記憶文化、時間感性與政治社群。我在本論文透過研究北愛爾蘭戲劇主張北愛爾蘭的記憶文化與政治展現出以下的動態張力：過去與現在／未來、私密與公共、個體與集體、虛構與事實、悅納與排外、流動與僵化、創傷與修復、敵對與和解、不義與倫理等等面向。同時，北愛爾蘭的記憶與遺忘的戰爭也連帶形塑、維繫與轉化身分認同、歷史意識、意識形態、情感樣貌、論述形構、主體位置、空間塑造、機構運作等等不同的物質與精神層次與領域。不論是在日常生活或是紀念慶典，根植於對所處社群的亡者的虧欠罪咎感所生發的必須記憶的義務通常不免強化對立社群彼此的敵對意識，也因此導致更多的仇懟、暴力與受害者情結。然而，若是基於倫理的原則所產生的記憶的職責則有可能採納不同與嶄新的記憶框架與互動，而因此有可能朝向癒合、寬恕與和解的發展。簡言之，此種基於倫理的記憶是以未來為視野並以他者的創傷及過去未竟的可能為記憶對象，而非一再重複自我早已凝滯僵化的單一延續性的記憶迴圈與路徑。

關鍵字

記憶；時間；倫理；創傷；戲劇；北愛爾蘭

並列摘要

This dissertation seeks to explore the roles, functions, and possibilities of memory and commemoration in the “Troubles plays” in the 1980s, that is, the plays concerning the Troubles of Northern Ireland. The main theatrical works discussed in the dissertation include Christina Reid’s Tea in a China Cup (1983), My Name, Shall I Tell You My Name? (1989), Frank McGuinness’ Carthaginians (1988), and Stewart Parker’s Pentecost (1987). In addition, I will also make reference to Brian Friel’s Freedom of the City (1973) and Dave Duggan’s Scenes from an Inquiry (2002). The introduction discusses the research topics, contexts, and questions of this dissertation, provides detailed literature reviews of the selected plays by Reid, McGuinness, and Parker, and ends with a chapter outline of the dissertation. The first chapter surveys the Troubles plays of Northern Ireland and shows the potential of memory studies in Northern Irish theatrical studies. The second chapter gives a detailed account of the trends and topics of Irish memory studies and also the theoretical frameworks and concepts employed in this dissertation. The third chapter provides a general overview of the ways in which memory and storytelling function in the political, legal, and social processes of transitional justice and conflict resolution in contemporary Northern Ireland, and thus emphasizes the significance of memory and forgetting in not only cultural representations but also everyday life in the peace process. The fourth chapter discusses Christina Reid’s Tea in a China Cup (1983) and My Name, Shall I Tell You My Name? (1989) by drawing upon sociological and cultural approaches to memory in (Irish) memory study. I explore the relationships between personal and collective memory, especially inter-generational memory within the Protestant, loyalist families in the plays, and further argue the peculiar temporality of loyalist memory in Northern Ireland. Moreover, I explain the female memory which is generally sidelined in the communal memory of loyalism and unionism from the perspective of the female protagonists, and hence challenge mainstream loyalist commemoration from the perspective of gender. In addition, I reveal the way in which the contestation of the social memory of the Battle of the Boyne and the Battle of the Somme at different levels and by different agents in these two plays indicates the problems of the eternal cycle of loyalist memory and its oblivion. In the end, I suggest that these two plays disclose the ethical potential to de-politicize memory and remember for the future instead of the past. The fifth chapter primarily talks about Frank McGuinness’ Carthaginians (1988), but also refers to Brian Friel’s Freedom of the City (1973) and Dave Duggan’s Scenes from an Inquiry (2002) for comparison. This chapter mainly employs concepts and theories about the relationships between memory, narrative, and trauma to illuminate the personal endeavors of the characters as either injured survivors or bereaved relatives to work over traumatic experiences of Bloody Sunday. Besides, I then discuss the way in which storytelling and narrative help or discourage the process of healing and recovery from the shocking experiences of the tragic past of state violence against the Catholic community. Additionally, I also probe into the problems of domineering republican memory of Bloody Sunday and its marked and detrimental influences on the masculinity of the male Catholic paramilitaries. In all, this chapter delves into the more personal, hidden process of coming to terms with a collective trauma which is not fully understood and commemorated in Catholic collective memory. The sixth chapter explores the thorny issue of reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland in Stewart Parker’s Pentecost (1987), which stages the struggles among characters of different gender roles, religious faiths, and political affiliations in a Protestant, working-class house during the conflict of Ulster Workers’ Council strike in 1974. The chapter begins by addressing the political and cultural conundrum of Britishness and Ulster Loyalism in Northern Ireland against the backdrop of the loyalist strike in May 1974. It then delineates the physical and psychological border politics in the private and public spheres in contemporary Northern Ireland and suggests the alternative potential of border thinking for the sectarian politics in Northern Ireland. In contrast to the self-limiting identity and border politics revealed in this play, this chapter also draws on some concepts and theories of ethics and memory so as to consider the possibility of remembering for the future and the other instead of self-serving obsession with a particular fragment and version of the shared, common past. This ethical memory is disclosed by Christian notions of love and its other-regarding principle beyond the sectarian polarization and its enclosed circle of mnemonic time in Northern Ireland. By referring to the current crisis of Northern Ireland after Brexit, the concluding chapter recaps what has been explored in the main body of the dissertation by revealing not only how memory works in Northern Ireland but also how it can and should work so that memory can become an ethical act which does not reproduce and exacerbate existing partisan identities, cultures, and politics but envisions and constructs new cultures of remembrance, new senses of temporality, and eventually new imagined communities. In this dissertation, I argue that the culture and politics of remembrance in Northern Ireland reveal the dynamic tensions between the present and past/future, the private and public, the personal and communal, the fictional and factual, the inclusive and exclusive, the fluid and reified, the traumatic and reparative, the inhospitable and reconciliatory, and the unrighteous and ethical. Moreover, the war of and on memory and forgetting in Northern Ireland shape, sustain, and transform identity politics, historical consciousness, ideological beliefs, emotional states, discursive formations, subject positions, spatial arrangements, and institutional constitutions of different ethno-political communities at different levels and spheres. Either in daily life or special celebrations, the imperative to remember based on a debt to the dead within one ethno-national community only exacerbates the existing polarized sectarianism and results in enmity, violence, and victimhood. However, this duty to remember based on ethical principles might lead to healing, pardon, and reconciliation by demanding a new paradigm of mnemonic frameworks and exchanges; that is, by remembering for the traumas of the ethno-religious other and unfulfilled possibilities of the past in the future tense instead of repeating self-centered mnemonic cycles of consistency and continuity.