書寫記憶：愛特伍《盲眼刺客》的療癒歷程

Writing Memory: The Process of Healing in Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin

林資閔(Tzu-Min Lin)

指導教授 ： 陳重仁

國立臺灣大學/文學院/外國語文學研究所/碩士(2019年)

https://doi.org/10.6342/NTU201900393

摘要

本論文探討瑪格麗特．愛特伍的小說《盲眼刺客》，主角艾莉絲的療癒歷程。為了治癒她的創傷並重建自我，年老的艾莉絲在她的回憶錄展示她欲留下的故事。根據保羅．呂格爾對記憶的概念，本論文對艾莉絲療癒歷程的探索，旨在揭示愛特伍創造出的女性角色，儘管面臨了老化的挑戰和年齡歧視，仍刻意並置她的個人記憶與集體記憶，來打破沈默並重現過去被消音的故事，以達到重建自我的目的。本論文藉由研究艾莉絲在不同生命階段的寫作動機，發覺年老的艾莉絲儼然從一個無聲的受害者，轉變成操弄記憶來重塑自我的強大個體。
內文主要分為兩章，外加緒論與結論。緒論除了回顧關於艾利絲創傷修復的現有研究方法和討論之外，還包含主要觀點和架構。第一章在過去不可能被完美重現的前提之下，檢視艾莉絲的療癒歷程，並根據呂格爾的記憶理論，討論艾莉絲如何透過書寫記憶來重建自我。年邁的艾莉絲利用她的個人記憶來對抗官方論述，揭露她和其他家族女性在父權與資本主義社會中的遭遇。除了暴露父權統治之外，承認自己過去對妹妹蘿拉的痛苦視而不見，也有助於艾莉絲治癒過去的創傷。為了實現重建自我的目標，艾莉絲在其回憶錄中，有意地重現過去來揭示父權文化下女性生活的黑暗面。
第二章著重於艾莉絲早年所寫的短篇小說，及其後來為了擺脫社會約束、克服無力感並恢復主體性所寫的回憶錄。年輕的她所創作的短篇小說，暗示了她渴望擺脫因性別角色期望而建立的身份認同，而小說的出版則可視為對男性威權的壓迫系統更加積極的反抗。然而，此階段的寫作無益於重建自我，因為她仍然在與她的情人亞歷克斯的婚外情中，處於被動地位，且無力面對她在蘿拉死亡中所扮演的共謀角色。在她晚年寫下的回憶錄當中，艾莉絲經由書寫記憶來呈現不同於官方版本的故事，以治癒源於犧牲自我和無視於他人的痛苦所引起的創傷。艾莉絲對記憶的操弄，說明了作者愛特伍筆下創造出的角色，面對因老化而上升的無助感，仍展現了堅強的心智，重現被消音的個人歷史，進而重新獲得自主權並找回自我。

關鍵字

書寫 ； 記憶 ； 創傷 ； 療癒 ； 重建自我 ； 老化

並列摘要

This thesis examines the main protagonist Iris Chase’s healing process in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Blind Assassin (2000). To heal her traumas and reconstruct herself, Atwood’s ageing narrator writes a memoir to present the stories she wants to leave behind. Based on Paul Ricoeur’s conception of memories, this exploration into Iris’s process of healing aims to reveal that Atwood creates a female character who, despite facing physical challenges and experiencing age discrimination, purposely represents her personal memories against collective ones to allow her muted voice to be heard and thus achieve the goal of self-reconstruction. Delving into Iris’s motives for writing at different life stages, this thesis aims to demonstrate that the elderly Iris, being no longer a voiceless victim, transforms into a powerful figure willfully mobilizing memories to remake herself.
This thesis is divided into two major chapters with an introduction and a conclusion. Besides reviewing existing critical discussions of and approaches to analyzing Iris’s recovery from traumas, the introduction presents my main argument and the thesis structure. Chapter One investigates Iris’s willful healing process on the premise that it is unlikely to give a perfect representation of the past. By referring to Ricoeur’s theory on the exercise of memory, I propose that Iris’s self-reconstruction becomes possible with her mobilization of memories. Using her personal memories to counter official truth, the ageing protagonist endeavors to disclose what she and other female members of the Chase family undergo in the patriarchal and capitalist society. Besides exposing patriarchal domination, admitting her own ignorance of her sister Laura’s suffering also assists Iris in healing the past traumas. To achieve her goal of revealing the dark aspects of her life and recreating herself, the senior Iris willfully represents the past.
Chapter Two deals with both the young Iris’s writing of “The Blind Assassin” novella during her earlier years and her later attempts to get rid of social constraints, overcome the sense of powerlessness, and restore subjectivity through her writing of the memoir. The young Iris’s writing of the novella suggests the aspiration to throw off the identities built with the influence of gender expectations and its publication can be regarded as more active resistance to an oppressive system of male authority. However, this writing turns out to be ineffective as she still occupies a rather passive position in the affair with her lover Alex and fails to confront her complicity in her sister’s death. Writing the memoir in her old age, Iris presents her version of story to heal the traumas induced by self-sacrifice as well as her blindness. As Iris’s mobilization of memories indicates, what Atwood offers to readers is an ageing narrator who, faced with a decline in physical capacity and feelings of helplessness, is still mentally strong enough to make her voice heard so as to regain autonomy and build selfhood.

並列關鍵字

writing ； memory ； trauma ； healing ； self-reconstruction ； ageing

參考文獻

Atwood, Margaret. The Blind Assassin. New York: Anchor, 2000. Print.

---. “Letting the Words Do the Work.” Waltzing Again. Ed. Earl G. Ingersoll. Princeton: Ontario Review, 2006. 222-35. Print.

---. “Spotty-Handed Villainesses: Problems of Female Bad Behavior in the Creation Of Literature.” Gifts of Speech, O.W. Toad Ltd., 1994, http://gos.sbc.edu/a/atwood.html.

Bouson, J. Brooks. “‘A Commemoration of Wounds Endured and Resented’: Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin as Feminist Memoir.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 44.3 (2003): 251-69. Print.

Chen, Chia-hui. “Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin: The Journey from Trauma to Recovery.” MA thesis. National Chung Hsing U, 2008. Print.