勞倫斯‧卜洛克偵探小說中的暴力與城市空間

To Define the Indefinable: Violence and Urban Space in Lawrence Block's Detective Novels

蔡昀伶(Yun-ling Tsai)

指導教授 ： 黃宗儀

國立臺灣師範大學/文學院/英語學系/碩士(2010年)

摘要

本文探討當代偵探小說家勞倫斯卜洛克如何在冷硬派作品當中再現暴力和城市空間。本文的中心論點是卜洛克在以馬修史卡德為私家偵探的系列作品當中，重新定義了暴力的概念。他不侷限於冷硬派傳統，不只將暴力和犯罪描寫為無所不在，無以名狀的道德威脅，而是將暴力書寫帶入城市空間，在當代紐約的時空脈絡下，以描寫再現暴力來回應城市與社會變遷，包括七零年代的移民潮、多元族裔社區的更迭、蹺家孩童現象、九一一事件、網路空間崛起等。

關鍵字

偵探小說 ； 暴力 ； 城市空間

並列摘要

This thesis explores the representations of violence and urban space in Lawrence Block’s hard-boiled detective novels. With critical analysis of representative Scudder novels, I contend that while employing the hard-boiled writing style Block takes on a great challenge to define violence, an essential element of hard-boiled world that has been presented as indefinable. He attempts to see beyond
the boundary of morality while exploring the alternative functions and purposes of violence. Meanwhile, by varying violent behaviors in the context of contemporary New York, Block loads them with social significance, manipulating representations of violence as response or commentary on the society. However, while proposing Block’s achievements in genre writing as well as social critique, I discuss his limits and failures, some of which are due to Block’s own bias while others stem from inherent instability of the violence motif itself.

參考文獻

Work Cited

Appadurai, Arjun. Fear of Small Numbers: An Essay on the Geography of Anger. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006.

Bertens, Hans And Theo D'haen. Contemporary American Crime Fiction. New York : Palgrave, 2001.

Berrol, Selma. The Empire City: New York and Its People, 1624-1996. Westport: Praeger Publishers,1997.

Bianco, Anthony. Ghosts of 42nd Street: A History of America's Most Infamous Block. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.