To Become a Remarkable Young Woman: The Governess's Construction of Self in Henry James's The Turn of the Screw

成為出色的年輕女子－亨利．詹姆士《碧廬冤孽》中家庭女教師的自我建構

蕭碧莉(Pi-li Hsiao)

《興大人文學報》 60期 (2018/03) Pp. 237-252

摘要

This paper aims to analyze how Henry James's unnamed protagonist in The Turn of the Screw attempts to become ＂a remarkable young woman＂ (James 39) by pursuing knowledge and suppressing her desire at Bly, the country mansion where she works as the governess. In response to the continued intense debates as to whether the governess is reliable and whether the ghosts exist, this paper proposes that the governess is an unreliable narrator and the ghosts are her fabrications. James ridicules Victorian womanhood by placing his governess in an extremely particular situation. The governess's difficulty in exercising the autonomy granted by her absent master results from her inferior position in terms of gender and class. Out of her thirst for appreciation and recognition from her master, she strives to pursue and produce knowledge about Bly. In order to be an ideal object of the imaginary male gaze, she denies her otherness and projects it onto Quint and Jessel, the dead former valet and governess, labeling them as ghosts that haunt the house and her two charges. In pursuit of knowledge and an ideal self-image, the protagonist presses the children on the existence of the ghosts to such an extent that she goes to extremes and invites evil and destruction.

關鍵字

knowledge ； otherness ； male gaze ； the governess

並列摘要

本文探討亨利．詹姆士《碧廬冤孽》中的無名家庭女教師如何尋求（製造）知識及否認（壓抑）慾望，希冀成為出色的年輕女子。針對長久以來關於女教師是否可信及鬼魅是否存在之激辯，本文主張家庭女教師為不可信的敘事者，而書中鬼魅為其捏造想像。為了嘲諷維多利亞時代的女性形象，詹姆士將家庭女教師置於極端特殊的處境中。儘管主人遠居倫敦，家庭女教師囿於自身較為低下的階級與性別地位，仍無法獨立自主全權處理碧廬事務。由於極度渴望獲取不在場主人的讚美認可，家庭女教師竭盡所能探究碧廬的過往，進而自行生產關於碧廬的知識。為了迎合想像中的男性凝視，家庭女教師拒絕承認本身的「他者性」，轉而將其投射到已故的前貼身男僕及前家庭女教師，將兩人視為糾纏碧廬及兩名學生的鬼魂。在追求知識及理想自我形象的同時，小說女主角運用極端手法壓迫兩名小孩承認鬼魂之存在，終於招來邪惡及毀滅。

並列關鍵字

知識 ； 他者性 ； 男性凝視 ； 家庭女教師

參考文獻

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