童妮．摩里森小說《樂園》中拉剛式他者的倫理

The Ethics of the Lacanian Other in Toni Morrison's Paradise

楊志偉(Julian Chih-wei Yang)

指導教授 ： 李秀娟教授

國立臺灣師範大學/文學院/英語學系/碩士(2006年)

摘要

本論文嘗試透過拉剛精神分析倫理觀(the ethics of Lacanian psychoanalysis)，尤其是其中有關拉剛式他者倫理(the ethics of Lacanian Other)的論述，來閱讀黑人女作家童妮．摩里森的第七本小說《樂園》。在該小說中，摩里森詳盡地刻畫了黑人社區「路比」之興衰史，探討導致該社區自我閉索以及排外政策之原因，以及這樣的思維如何造成駭人的結果：九位來自於路比的男性殺害了居住在社區附近修道院的五位女性。在其群體暴力事件發生之後，這五位女性的屍體卻離奇消失。這意味著透過呈現該暴力事件，摩里森並不單純地打算宣判這些男性為殺人兇手。相反地，她試圖探索跳脫導致該集體暴力之心緒結構之可能。本論文主張拉剛式他者的倫理觀有助於吾人認識摩里森撰寫《樂園》之目的，並且探索該小說所展現的倫理企圖。
所謂拉剛式的他者倫理，並不是一種強調大寫他者義務的倫理觀。相反地，拉剛精神分析的重點在於主體(subject)自身所需承擔的倫理責任，強調在面對他者的慾望(desire)與缺憾(lack)時，主體該如何與之斡旋並成就其主體性。事實上，拉剛在討論主體的慾望如何誕生於幻想(fantasizing)他者之所求與欠缺(want)的同時，也直陳主體不應一面倒地放棄自身的慾望而向他者的慾望投降。依照拉剛精神分析的觀點，如果要使倫理的主體性(ethical subjectivity)成為可能，主體必須正面抵抗他者無窮盡的慾望，並且積極、無盡的追求他者與自身之慾望。因之，拉剛式他者的倫理觀並非只是闡述主體身份(subjecthood)建構過程的另一種論述。透過精神分析倫理學，拉剛企圖探索主體性(subjectivity)及其所能成就的倫理可能。
全文分成五個章節，以闡明摩里森的《樂園》如何展現了拉剛式他者的倫理觀。論文首章介紹拉剛精神分析倫理學，回顧摩里森小說與評論中的種族倫理(ethics of race)，界定何謂拉剛式他者的倫理，以及小說《樂園》呈現的拉剛式倫理主體。第二章討論拉剛精神分析中所定義的變/父態(perversion/p?re-version)精神結構如何普遍地主宰了黑人社區路比，並指明該社區居民受制於變/父態之程度，進而說明在此過程中，路比居民如何透過宣稱犧牲了自我的慾望，否認(disavow)他者的缺憾，以滿足他者的爽暢(jouissance)。第三章揭露路比變成一個變/父態社群之原因，藉由探索在路比的發展史上，物質層面的困境以及心靈上的創傷扮演了怎樣的決定性影響，以說明該社區的建立以及維護如何與變/父態共生共息。第四章則將焦點轉至拉剛所謂的穿越幻想(the traversing of fantasy)如何能解決變/父態結構，並且將重點放在使穿越幻想成為可能的兩項工作：詮釋慾望(the interpretation of desire)以及認識真實界(the knowledge of the Real)。最後一章處理穿越幻想如何能幫助路比居民從變/父態之精神結構，轉化成不同的主體身份位置，以實踐拉剛式倫理之主體性。

關鍵字

精神分析倫理學 ； 變/父態 ； 欲力 ； 穿越幻想 ； 拉剛式主體

並列摘要

The thesis attempts to read Toni Morrison’s Paradise (1999) in light of what Lacan refers to as the ethics of psychoanalysis, in particular the ethics of the Lacanian Other. In this novel, Morrison provides an exhaustive picture of the history of a black community, Ruby, and relates the cause and effect of its policy of self-exclusion and xenophobia, which ultimately lead to nine male Rubians’ assault on five women living in the nearby Convent. However, after the event of the gang violence, the corpses of the Convent women mysteriously vanish. The disappearance of these women’s bodies suggests that Morrison’s depiction of the attack does not aim to find guilty these Ruby men but to seek the way out of the psychical structure that results in the violent action. The ethics of the Lacanian Other in a way helps one to recognize and fulfill Morrison’s project in the novel.
The ethics of the Lacanian Other is not an ethics concerned with the responsibility of the big Other. Instead, its ethical dimension centers upon the subject and the duty that has to be borne in the confrontation with the Other, especially in terms of the Other’s desire and lack. In fact, although Lacan posits that the subject’s desire originates from his/her fantasizing about the lack in the Other, about what the Other wants from him-/herself, he does not contend that the subject should be overwhelmed by the question of the Other’s desire. On the contrary, Lacanian psychoanalysis delves into an ethical subjectivity that can derive from the negotiation with the Other’s desire and from the active and unyielding pursuit of the desire of both the self and the Other. Thus, the ethics of the Lacanian Other cannot be reduced to an alternative reiteration discoursing upon the constitution of subjecthood. Rather, by appealing to the ethics of psychoanalysis, Lacan intends to examine the possibility of subjectivity and the ethical weight promised and developed therein.
In order to elucidate where Morrison’s Paradise is coterminous with the Lacanian ethics of subjectivity, the thesis encompasses five chapters. Chapter I provide.s a survey of the horizon of Lacanian ethics of psychoanalysis, Morrison’s ethics of race, the ethics of the Lacanian Other, and the intersection of Morrison and Lacan with respect to the ethics of subjectivity. Chapter II specifies the pervasion of perversion in Ruby, exploring to what extent Rubians claim to give up their own desire and disavow the lack in the Other so as to fulfill the Other’s jouissance. Chapter III discloses the factors that make Ruby perverse and reviews how the material predicament and psychological trauma cause the coincidence of the birth of the community and the birth of perversion. Chapter IV concentrates upon the possibility of traversing the perverse fantasy at work in Ruby and discusses how two analytic works—the interpretation of desire and the knowledge of the Real—help put into effect this task. Chapter V probes into how through the traversing of fantasy, Rubians demonstrate the possibility of transposing from perversion into a new subject position and, as a consequence, attain the Lacanian ethical subjectivity.

並列關鍵字

the ethics of psychoanalysis ； perversion/p?re-version ； drive ； the traversing of fantasy ； the Lacanian subject

參考文獻

Works Cited

Althusser, Louis. Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.”Rivkin and Ryan 294-304.

Angelo, Bonnie. The Pain of Being Black: An Interview with Toni Morrison.”Conversations with Toni Morrison. Ed. Danille Taylor-Guthrie. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1994. 255-61.

Best, Steve, and Douglas Kellner. Deleuze and Guattari: Schizos, Nomads, Rhizomes.”Postmodern Theory: Critical Interrogations. London: Macmillan, 1991. 76-110.

Borch-Jacobsen, Mikkel. Dreams Are Completely Egoistic.” The Freudian Subject. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1991. 10-52.