The Ethical Reconfiguration of the Body in Philip Roth's "Exit Ghost"

身體的倫理重塑：菲利普．羅斯《幽靈出局》之探討

Chi-Min Chang

《Tamkang Review》 43卷1期 (2012/12) Pp. 81-98

https://doi.org/10.6184/TKR.201212_43(1).0005

摘要

自1979年的《幽靈作家》（The Ghost Wrtier）以來，拉森蘇克曼 （Nathan Zuckerman）一直是菲利普．羅斯（Philip Roth）在一系列蘇克曼小說中最受矚目的角色。不同於之前八本蘇克曼小說，在《幽靈出局》（Exit Ghost）中，蘇克曼在十一年的鄉間退隱後，因醫療需要再度回到紐約，但已年邁病重。他發現他的「不再」—不再能適應科技包裹的都會環境；不再跟得上當代文學的品味，甚至無法維持他原有的樣貌。更讓他痛苦的是，當都會生活再度燃起他的慾望和生命意志時，他不再擁有那個身體去展現他的熱情和意圖。特別的是，這「不再」的身體重新形塑的倫理關係，不只在愛情和友誼上，也呈現於書寫策略。受限於身體上的無能，甚至失禁，蘇克曼親身經歷深刻的倫理困境。呼應列維納斯（Emmanuel Levinas）談論的絕對的被動性（radical passivity），《幽靈出局》中的倫理關係值得深入探討，尤其當他者凸顯自我身體上的脆弱和無能時，所隱含不同的倫理可能性。也就是，羅斯在小說中所呈現的倫理關係，一方面要回應他者，但另一方面要保有自我，來體現這樣的倫理責任。閱讀羅斯的《幽靈出局》就如列維納斯倫理概念的延伸，因為在回應他者之前，小說中的身體概念強烈顯示自我的被動性和脆弱性，同時也是倫理關係重塑的重要關鍵。

關鍵字

身體 ； 列維納斯 ； 《幽靈出局》 ； 疾病 ； 衰老

並列摘要

Nathan Zuckerman is the distinct narrator-protagonist in Philip Roth's Zuckerman novels, starting from ”The Ghost Writer” (1979). Different from the previous eight novels, ”Exit Ghost” (2007) portrays Zuckerman as an author, ill and senile, coming back to New York, his former writing home. After an 11-year rural seclusion, Zuckerman finds he no longer fits in the technologically wrapped urban milieu and no longer follows contemporary literary taste. He suffers all the more acutely because, while his desire and will to life are ignited by urban encounters, he no longer possesses the body to enact his passion or intention. The ”no-longer” of the body gives rise to a re-configuration of ethical relation in love, in friendship and in writing.Suffering from impotence and incontinence, Zuckerman goes through ethical difficulties marked by the frail body, the inevitable helplessness of old age and sickness. Corresponding to Emmanuel Levinas's idea of the radical passivity in the face of the other and the embodied ethical subject, the ethical relation in ”Exit Ghost” is worth exploring as it implies a predicament when one finds inescapable corporeal frailty and disability, which present a different ethical edge or possibility. That is, responding to others is one thing, but preserving the sense of selfhood and embodying ethical responsibility is a confrontation with an-other. The reading of Roth's ”Exit Ghost” is like an extension of the loop of Levinas's ethics, in which the self's passivity and vulnerability are marked by the body that precedes to the responsibility for others.

並列關鍵字

body ； Levinas ； exit ghost ； illness ； senility

參考文獻

Parrish, Timothy(Ed.)(2007).The Cambridge Companion to Philip Roth.New York:Cambridge UP.

Searles, George J.(Ed.)(1992).Conversations with Philip Roth.Jackson:UP of Mississippi.

Levinas, Emmanuel,Lingis, Alphonso(Trans.)(1998).Otherwise than Being or beyond Essence.Pittsburgh:Duquesne UP.

Levinas, Emmanuel,Lingis, Alphonso(Trans.)(1979).Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority.Boston:Martinus Nijhoff.

Levinas, Emmanuel,Poller, Nidra(Trans.)(2003).Humanism of the Other.Urbana:U of Illinois P.