＂The BwO is desire＂: Disability and Sexuality in John Belluso's Gretty Good Time

This paper will attempt to employ Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's notion of the Body without Organs (BwO) to explore the representation of disabled sexuality in Gretty Good Time (1999) by the American disabled playwright John Belluso (1969- 2006). The first part will expound Deleuze and Guattari's conceptualization of the BwO in A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (1987): the BwO is opposed to the stratification or organization of the body; it is a field for the production, circulation, and intensification of desire, the locus of the immanence of desire; it is a medium of becoming as its desire, flows, and intensities create deterritorializations, lines of flight, and reterritorializations. The second part will first consider the disability of Gretty, the main female character in the play. Gretty, 32 years old, suffers from post-polio paralysis, and has been living in a nursing home. In medical discourse and in cultural imaginary, disabled people like Gretty are regarded as asexual, or lack of sexual potentiality. Then this part will look at Gretty's sexual expression, with a focus on her desire for Dr. Henry and the scenes in which he touches and kisses her. Showing that desire in her disabled body, her Body without Organs, is not a lack or flaw, but a fundamental, free flow, Gretty subverts the medical authority and shatters the cultural myth. Finally, this part will point out how Gretty's desire moves her out of her confines-at the critical moment she abandons her long-held plan to commit suicide and accepts Dr. Henry's suggestion to apply for the new In-Home Supportive Services Program; she becomes a different person and looks forward to a new life. Gretty's desire eventually produces a trajectory of deterritorialization and a line of flight, a process of becoming. In conclusion, the paper will manifest that, by cripping mainstream representations of sexuality, that is, by presenting the disabled body as sexual, as positive, fluid becoming, Gretty Good Time problematizes the issue of disability and sexuality and opens up differences and possibilities.

關鍵字

John Belluso ； Deleuze and Guattari ； the Body without Organs ； disability ； sexuality

並列摘要

本論文擬運用德勒茲與瓜塔利之「無器官身體」的理論，來探討美國失能劇作家約翰．貝魯索（1969-2006）之《美好時光》（1999）中失能者的情慾議題。全文主要有兩部份：第一部份闡釋德勒茲與瓜塔利在《千高原：資本主義與精神分裂》(1987)中對「無器官身體」的論述。「無器官身體」抗拒對身體器官的組織和建構，它是充滿慾望的場域；慾望打破組織、建構身體器官的力量，產生逃逸路線，進而帶來流變。第二部份首先說明劇中女主角葛蕾蒂的失能狀況。三十二歲的葛蕾蒂，因小兒麻痺症致使全身癱瘓，僅右手手臂有些許活動能力，長期住在一家安養院。在醫學論述和文化想像中，重殘如葛蕾蒂，不具情慾。該部份繼之探索葛蕾蒂內在壓抑的情慾，著重於她對醫生亨利的愛慕，以及兩人相處時，她的情慾表露和展現。葛蕾蒂情慾流動的演繹，揭示在失能者身上，情慾未曾匱乏，顛覆了失能者不具性慾的迷思。該部份最後指出，因為慾望，葛蕾蒂有了新的經驗和體悟，最後放棄自殺，接受醫生亨利的建議，申請居家治療，期待不同的生活和生命。一如無器官身體，葛蕾蒂的失能身體因慾望而擺脫對其建構和限制的力量，激發新的契機，帶來改變。透過對《美好時光》的分析，本論文希望改變對失能者情慾的既有看法，賦予失能身體不同的意涵。

並列關鍵字

約翰．貝魯索；德勒茲與瓜塔利；無器官身體；失能；情慾

參考文獻

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