顛覆基督教英雄：喬治．馬偕的《福爾摩沙紀事》裡的疾病敘述與男子氣概危機

Unsettling a Christian Hero: Narratives of Disease and Masculinity Crisis in George Leslie Mackay's From Far Formosa

王瀚陞(Han-Sheng Wang)

《外國語文研究》 23期 (2015/12) Pp. 27-50

https://doi.org/10.30404/FLS.201512_(23).0002

摘要

不同於帝國書寫裡殖民者在冒險犯難的過程所體現的陽剛男子氣概，白人病患的女性化(effeminate)特質成為主流殖民論述裡白人征服者／土著被征服者的反論述。白人男子氣概的建構充斥於十九世紀的醫學、文學及文化論述之中，將探索新世界的男性殖民者／旅行家／傳教士／冒險家等塑造成健康、強壯、適應力強、充滿活力之形象。女性化的白人病患則成為主流論述裡的「他者」。本論文便是以此為出發點，將位居「他者」的白人病患角色放在聚光燈下，重新檢視其受忽略、壓抑、貶抑的疾病經驗，探究疾病如何影響白人患者的身體與心理並透過書寫傳達「他者」的感受與經驗。本論文探討於十九世紀台灣開放通商口岸之後來台的加拿大傳教士喬治．馬偕(George Leslie Mackay 1844-1901)在其傳教書寫與回憶錄《福爾摩沙紀事》裡所記載之感染熱病經驗，特別著重傳教士馬偕常為人忽略之病患角色。在《福爾摩沙紀事》一書中馬偕回顧於台灣各地巡迴傳教之觀察與見聞，書中的疾病敘述一方面受到十九世紀英雄式傳教書寫(heroic missionary writing)文體的限制，一方面受限於當時對於傳教士健康形象之期待與要求，馬偕刻意壓抑曾於私密日記揭露在陌生異教地域裡，面對猛烈侵襲的瘧疾表現出之痛苦、無助與掙扎。《福爾摩沙紀事》的讀者反而對馬偕攜其弟子向頑強的漢人異教徒宣教，無畏瘴癘之氣，翻山越嶺，深入獵人頭之原民部落進行佈道之剛強男子氣概形象印象深刻。本論文細究《福爾摩沙紀事》如何將馬偕塑造成英勇強健的傳教英雄，並探討書中再現的疾病敘述如何透露馬偕的白人基督徒男子氣概危機。

關鍵字

喬治．馬偕 ； 男子氣概危機 ； 疾病敘述 ； 《福爾摩沙紀事》

並列摘要

The construction of White masculinity is perceivable through nineteenth-century discourses of medicine, literature, and culture that fashion male colonialists, travelers, missionaries, and explorers as sturdy, healthy, accommodating, and energetic adventurers. The effeminate White patient thus becomes ＂the Other＂ to the mainstream construction of masculinity. Thus said, this paper wants to highlight the Otherness of the White patient from the tropic, foreground his or her long ignored, repressed, and abased experience of sickness, and explore how diseases serve to dismantle the construction of masculinity by Victorian discourses. Masculinity promoted by Muscular Christianity Movement in Victorian England has exerted its influence on missionaries preaching gospels overseas. The masculine, stalwart military force guarding the far-reached territories of the British Empire finds its counterpart in the image of a sturdy overseas evangelical worker. The first Canadian Presbyterian missionary to Formosa, an island which has just opened its ports to foreign powers since the 1860s, George Leslie Mackay (1844-1901) is represented as an evangelist braving the tropic, intimidating heathenry in the memoir From Far Formosa, which was published in 1895 for readers, lay and religious, to bolster Christian masculinity. Such construction of masculinity may also reflect Victorian fear of becoming ＂the invalid,＂ a feminized figure who fails to adapt to the harsh milieu of the conquered territories. Unlike previous studies of Mackay highlighting his missionary achievements, this paper underscores Mackay's largely unexplored role as a patient of tropical fever, examining how narratives of disease in From Far Formosa serve to undermine White muscular Christianity fashioned through heroic missionary writing and uncover fin de siècle masculinity crisis felt by men at home and abroad.

並列關鍵字

George Leslie Mackay ； masculinity crisis ； narrative of disease ； From Far Formosa

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