A Search for Home: Displacement in "King Lear"

家的追尋：《李爾王》裡的流離失所

Joseph Chih-Chiao Yang

《Tamkang Review》 43卷1期 (2012/12) Pp. 67-80

https://doi.org/10.6184/TKR.201212_43(1).0004

摘要

根據巴舍拉的空間詩學，「家」既是物質的場域，也是心靈的空間，提供人類一個真實的場所，讓人有溫暖及舒適的感受與想像。以巴舍拉的理論來閱讀《李爾王》，更能凸顯及深化其流離失所的主題。在《李爾王》劇裡，原本是生命庇護所的城堡，李爾卻因將國土與財產分給他的兩個女兒後，淪落到被摒除在外，不得其門而入，震撼了他對家的認知。為了遮風避雨，李爾只能勉強躲進一間鄙陋的小茅屋，於是他的內心與言辭中就交錯著舒適的房子與卑賤的小屋的價值定位。溫馨的家對他來說，已經遙不可及，甚至讓他感到嫌惡。當城堡裡發生了一連串陰謀背叛、離心離德的事時，李爾反而在荒野的小茅屋裡遇到了裝瘋的艾德格，找到某種寄託，重新領略生命。離開了陋鄙小屋，當李爾流浪在荒原中，他的心靈與想像反而得以舒展。此劇空間的轉換將所有場域的價值質疑、顛覆，原本安撫人心的空間卻成了陰暗的角落，李爾的心智也因此被瓦解與重塑。這趟艱辛的身心空間歷程，直到李爾臨死之際，才彷彿追尋到片刻對家的憧憬與期待。

關鍵字

巴舍拉 ； 詩學 ； 空間 ； 場域 ； 流離失所 ； 《李爾王》

並列摘要

According to Gaston Bachelard, home, both as a physical and mental shelter for human beings, involves a real space around which the imagination creates further images of warmth and coziness. The theme of displacement from home is pre-eminent in ”King Lear”, and thus the tragedy serves as a striking example of Bachelard's poetics of space. In ”King Lear”, although castles appear to be shelters for people, Lear can neither possess nor have access to them after he divides his kingdom and bestows all his property on his two elder daughters, who then banish him and keep him away from both them and their castles. Lear's roaming in the storm ends with his being forced to take refuge in a hovel. Before he reluctantly enters the hovel, contrasting ideas of a comfortable house and of a miserable hut become twisted in Lear's mind and speech. As he realizes the wretchedness of life in a hovel, Lear's previous picture of home as an intimate space is challenged and demolished. A cozy home becomes an unattainable place for Lear, and brings forth ever more destructive thoughts. However, whereas to him castles are now fraught with treachery and disaster, the hovel provides Lear with an epiphanic locus where he reaches certain profound realizations. In the hovel, Lear meets and befriends Edgar, disguised as Mad Tom. Leaving the hovel, Lear roams on the heath, which extends his imagination and contemplation. The values of these loci are challenged and remodeled in the play: the supposed sanctuary for Lear now becomes the space of darkness. Because of radical changes in his physical locales, Lear's mental spaces are disrupted. As with the poetics of space, the play becomes a fruitless journey in which Lear looks for a home, with the possibility that he may just find this before the end.

並列關鍵字

Bachelard ； poetics ； space ； loci ； displacement ； "King Lear"

參考文獻

Bachelard, Gaston,Jolas, Maria(Trans.)(1994).The Poetics of Space: The Classic Look at How We Experience Intimate Places.Boston:Beacon.

Bradley, A. C.(1992).Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth.Basingstoke:Macmillan.

Brian, Robert Keith(2002).King Lear: Rejection, Abandonment, Projection and Paranoia.London:The Psychotherapy Centre.

Cavell, Stanley(2003).Disowning Knowledge in Seven Plays of Shakespeare.Cambridge:Cambridge UP.

Colie, Rosalie L.(Ed.),Flahiff, F. T.(Ed.)(1974).Some Facets of King Lear: Essays in Prismatic Criticism.Toronto:U of Toronto P.