Elusive Females: The Coexistence of Submissiveness and Subversiveness within Female Characters in "Gerusalemme Liberata"

謎樣般的女人：〈耶路撒冷被解放〉中女性角色顛覆性與順服性並存之探討

郭欣茹(Hsin-Ju Kuo) ； 呂惠雁(Huey-Yann Lu)

《興國學報》 6期 (2006/07) Pp. 29-39

https://doi.org/10.29950/JHKUM.200607.0003

摘要

塔索（Torquato Tasso）的〈耶路撒冷被解放〉被視為承繼了但丁（Dante）與味吉爾（Virgil）文學傳統，同時卻又具有創新顛覆性的重要作品。這部作品最被學者廣泛討論的議題是，塔索試圖在史詩（epic）的寫作傳統中注入傳奇（romance）的元素，藉由融合兩種截然不同的文類（genres）－史詩與傳奇－成為一種創新體裁。他的做法在當時16世紀文壇掀起爭議波瀾，抑鬱不得志的塔索於是在1591年重新改寫這部作品以符合當時學術界對於文類的嚴格規範。但時至今日，塔索在這部作品中表現出的跨文類疆域上的流動與越界，實則賦予了這部作品更豐富的詮釋觀點與更具批判性的視野。本文旨在探討塔索因消溶了史詩與傳奇兩種文類的定義規範而衍生出的矛盾與曖昧模糊空間實際上也同時顛覆了史詩與傳奇文學傳統定義下的兩種典型女性角色－驍勇善戰之女戰士（Amazons）與被物化為男性論戰功行賞之獎品的柔弱女性（prize objects）。此文學傳統所呈現之僵化形塑不再桎梏塔索筆下的女性。Clorinda, Erminia及Armida的角色呈現是流動而多元，無法被定義的：運籌帷幄的巾幗英雄同時也是柔弱待拯救的女性，而被物化為男性附屬的女性實則以其柔弱形象作為策略以遂行其目的。顛覆與順服二元對立的特質同時並存於這些女性角色的自我認同中，此流動而多元的面向應許了對〈耶路撒冷被解放〉文本更豐富的詮釋空間。

關鍵字

耶路撒冷被解放 ； 史詩 ； 傳奇

並列摘要

Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata is hailed as an influential masterpiece in the tradition of Dante and Virgil. The most pervasive discussion emphasizes his intention to revive the epic by infusing new materials-elements of romance-into the tradition. For his attempt to fuse two different genres and to please all his readers-both the learned and the common folk, Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata was strongly criticized by his contemporaries. Thus the inherent ambiguity in this work reveals an unstable structure and promises a multiplicity of transgressive interpretations of the text itself. In this essay, I would like to shed light on an alternative interpretation of reading Tasso's three prominent female characters-Clorinda, Erminia, and Armida. In a sense, Tasso challenges and further blurs the traditional definitions of female figures in the epic and romance-a female warrior, an Amazon, in the epic and a prize object in the romance. According to a rigid definition of what constitutes the romance and the epic, a female warrior acts and fights like a man and ceases to be a woman physically, whereas the prize object of the romances is voiceless, unidentifiable and submissive to male characters. Interestingly, Tasso's portraits of his female characters transgressed the boundaries of this predominant feature of both the genres. The nature of these three female characters is subversive, undefined and elusive, which cannot be manipulated or pinned down by any traditional definitions of gender. Therefore, these female characters are potentially endowed by nature with a subversive power to transgress the boundaries set by previous epic and romance writers. This convention notwithstanding, Tasso has made their process of conversion diversified and undermined by portraying them as distinct from other female characters in epics and romances. Clorinda, Erminia and Armida should be perceived as complicated heroines whose submissiveness and subversiveness coexist within them. This ambivalent coexistence contributes to an alternative way of reading Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata.

並列關鍵字

Gerusalemme Liberata ； epic ； romance ； the Amazon ； the prize object

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