生命政治：論辛哈的《據說，我曾經是人類》中的結構性暴力

On Bio-Politics: Structural Violence in Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People

林品君(Pin-Chun Lin)

指導教授 ： 蔡振興

淡江大學/外國語文學院/英文學系碩士班/碩士(2020年)

https://doi.org/10.6846/TKU.2020.00094

摘要

辛哈(Indra Sinha)的小說《據說，我曾是人類》(Animal’s People, 2007)以一個虛構的印度城市考普爾(Khaufpur)作為故事場景，描述美國公司設立於考普爾的化學工廠的毒氣外洩事故造成環境汙染及毒害，導致當地居民因吸入毒氣而造成身體上的傷害。故事中的敘事者「動物」是一位生於考普爾的十九歲青年，他的脊椎彎曲如動物而得其名。「動物」透過錄音帶向聽眾敘述鎮上的居民如何帶著他們的悲痛及創傷，挺著殘破卻堅強的身軀去力抗印度政府和美國公司。
本文依照論文主題分為三個子題：首先由傅柯的生命政治(Bio-politics) 的角度來探討由毒氣外洩事故來探討事件中加害者與受害者之間的關係，並分析考普爾居民身為受害者的生存價值，次由尼克森的緩慢暴力(Slow Violence)來分析此一事件帶給考普爾居民的毒害汙染所造成的身體損害，再以挪威社會學家加爾通(Johan Galtung) 由社會學角度所提出之結構性暴力來探討美國公司與考普爾市居民之間的結構性暴力(Structural Violence)關係。最後，我更進一步以阿岡本的裸命概念分析身為權力關係中的考普爾弱勢族群在深受結構性暴力的迫害之下，是如何遭法律及政治棄置，而考普爾居民身在此一文本中又具何種象徵性意義亦為本文中欲探討的要點之一。

關鍵字

生命政治 ； 緩慢暴力 ； 結構性暴力 ； 裸命

並列摘要

Indra’ Sinha’s second novel, Animal’s People, is based on a fictitious Indian City, Khaufpur. A plant of an American Company (the Kampani) had a tragic gas leak accident in Khaufpur, and it caused serious toxic pollution to the environment. The local residents were exposed to the toxic gas on that night; therefore, lung disease is the most common disease in Khaufpur. The story-teller in the novel is a nineteen-year-old man called Animal, with the disability of a deformed, twisted back. Animal records his stories on tapes to tell how the Khaupuris resist to the Kampani with their sorrow, trauma, and frail bodies.
The thesis consists of three chapters. In Chapter One, I apply Michel Foucault’s concept of biopolitics to explore the relationship between the perpetrators and sufferers of the gas leak accident. In Chapter Two, I use Rob Nixon’s theory of slow violence to elucidate how the toxic residues damage the Khaufpuris’s bodies. In Chapter Three, I take Giorgio Agamben’s notion of bare life to analyze how the Khaufpuris are abandoned by law and politics. The representational meaning of Khaufpuris is also a key point that I want to discuss in this thesis.

並列關鍵字

biopolitics ； slow violence ； structural violence ； bare life

參考文獻

Works Cited

Agamben, Giorgio. Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. California: Stanford University Press, 1998. Print.

---. The State of Exception. Trans. Kevin Attell. Chicage: University of Chicago Press, 2005. Print.

Chang, Ya-Lan. “Toxicity Survival: Toxicity, Violence, and Trans-Corporeal Ethics in Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People.” Chung Wai Literary 44.4 (2015):90-131. Print.

“Declaration of Geneva.” World Medical Association. 9 July 2018