含蘊、悲苦與滿盈:論譚恩美的《喜福會》與《灶君娘娘》中華裔女子的蛻變

Impregnation, Anguish and Exuberance:The Repertoire of Chinese American Women’s Transformation in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God’s Wife

朱雯娟(Jenny Wen-chuan Chu)

指導教授 ： 田維新博士

國立臺灣師範大學/文學院/英語學系/博士(2000年)

摘要

含蘊、悲苦與滿盈:
論譚恩美的《喜福會》與《灶君娘娘》中華裔女子的蛻變
摘 要
蛻變的過程對譚恩美的二部小說《喜福會》與《灶君娘娘》中華裔的女子所呈現出的再定位與追尋主體性是極為重要的。小說中的華裔女子，企圖擁有主動的，具辨識的與有力的地位，並希翼在後現代與後殖民的情境中成為主人。他們不斷的面對挑戰，建構自我並重建他們的歷史。蛻變過程中的含蘊、悲苦與滿盈三大階段讓這些華裔女子能夠經歷、認知並確定他們在中國與美國的社會地位，並可提供處於後現代與後殖民時代中的多項重要議題，擘畫出另一折衷文化中，多層視野的展望。
本文在導論中就四大後現代理論加以說明：包括包希亞的模擬、超現實與內爆的理論；拉崗的想像，象徵與真實三階段的心理分析；傅柯的權力知識論與尼采的權力意識。並分析譚恩美小說中不同的正面與反面的評論。舉出《喜福會》與《灶君娘娘》兩部小說中相同主題的架構，俾便本論文做有力的解讀與詮釋。
第二章針對男子氣概的錯誤觀念，主體性的誤認與「溫馴的群體」的概念，說明華裔母親在父權社會中被教導成「溫馴的群體」，而華裔女兒在白人男性統治的社會中亦被教育成「溫馴的群體」的現象。他們均誤識其自我認同的主體性。
第三章著眼於男子氣概的神話，語言的功效及「上帝之死」的概念。這些華裔女子在面對婚姻中極度痛苦的悲劇，文化衝突中語言的障礙及信仰的喪失的情況下，被鼓勵發出心聲並表達自我成為自主性的團體。
第四章著重在踰越與超然的意識如何為這些華裔女子造就一個滿盈的人生。在此階段的蛻變的過程中，華裔女子表現出潛在的能量，企圖革新其生活方式與身體政治等論述，達成願望的實現。尼采的超人哲學具現在他們的個性中，使這些華裔女子在他們的文化背景與社會中成為有力的一方。同時，傅柯的「美學的存在」提供一新的生活哲學，使這些華裔女子更能回歸中國道統。
本論文的結論以尼采的永恆輪迴的學說，企圖說明含蘊、悲苦與滿盈三大階段的蛻變過程是一永恆旋轉的輪軸，經歷這些蛻變的華裔女子擁有超人的能源，打破社會上的教條主義並超越文化的既定疆界。

關鍵字

含蘊 ； 悲苦 ； 滿盈 ； 主體性 ； 蛻變 ； 男子氣概 ； 內爆 ； 踰越

並列摘要

Impregnation, Anguish and Exuberance:
The Repertoire of Chinese American Women’s
Transformation in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club and
The Kitchen God’s Wife
Abstract
The repertoire of transformation is crucial for Tan’s Chinese American women to the mapping out of their positions and searching for their subjectivity. In this dissertation, I will argue that in Tan’s The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God’s Wife, these Chinese American women tend to become masters in the postmodern and post-colonial contexts. By possessing the subjective, the recognizable and the powerful positions, these Chinese American women encounter their challenges, constitute their identifications and reconstruct their histories. The phases of impregnation, anguish and exuberance in the repertoire of transformation enable these Chinese American women to experience, recognize and complement their positions in both Chinese and American societies, proposing several significant issues in the postmodern and post-colonial world and conjuring up the multi-faceted perspectives of the eclectic culture.
The introductory chapter includes four postmodern perspectives and theories which foreground the subsequent argument: Jean Baudrillard’s concept of simulations, hyperreality and implosion; Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalysis on the Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real; Michel Foucault’s power/knowledge and Friedrich Nietzsche’s the will to power. Different positive and negative criticisms help me to analyze the complicated structures and multiple narratives in Tan’s novels. Furthermore, I will expound that The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God’s Wife share the same subject matters which are adequate for me to be in the full-scale of re-interpretation and re-inscription in the novels.
Chapter Two highlights the phase of impregnation which centers on three interrelated themes: a false concept of masculinity; the misrecognition of Tan’s Chinese American women’s subjectivity; and the idea of docile bodies. In Tan’s first two novels, the Chinese mothers receive, accept and obey the doctrines of their elders without resistance or any comment. They are raised and taught to be docile bodies in their patriarchal society. Their American-born daughters submit themselves to the simulations of American ideal models without question. They are educated and trained to be docile bodies in a white male dominated society. They only suffer from their misrecognition. The main concern of Chapter Three consists in the masculine myth, the function of language and the idea of “the death of God” in the phase of anguish. Tan’s Chinese American women confront the deepest, painful tragedies in their marriages; the language barriers of their cultural conflicts and the declaration of non-existence of God in their beliefs. They are encouraged to articulate silence and to express themselves as desiring productions, speaking subjects and autonomous individuals.
Chapter Four analyzes how a will to transgression and transcendence is operated on a life of exuberance for these Chinese American women. Undergoing the third phase of transformation, I will tend to explore these Chinese American women’s potential power and energies to involve revolutions in their lifestyles, discourses, bodies and sexuality and, thus, to achieve the wish-fulfillment of their own. Nietzschean concept of the overman sets up a model for these Chinese American women to embody their personalities. Possessing the will to power, these Chinese American women become masters in the power positions of their cultures as well as societies. Moreover, Foucauldian concept of an “aesthetics of existence” opens up for a new way of these Chinese American women’s lives. They, thus, realize and cherish their Chinese heritage. The concluding chapter looks upon the doctrine of the eternal recurrence in repertoires of these Chinese American women’s transformation. To be precise, the process of impregnation, anguish and exuberance, at some point, reflects the doctrine of the eternal recurrence. Through the eternal recurrence of transformation, I proceed to applaud these Chinese American women like the overman who tries to break with conformity and overcomes himself in his culture as well as society.

並列關鍵字

impregnation ； anguish ； exuberance ； subjectivity ； transformation ； masculinity ； implosion ； transgression

參考文獻

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. Trans. Colin Smith. London: Routledge, 1962.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Book, 1994.

傅述先，〈母性的神秘聲音:譚恩美講的故事〉，《中外文學》第十一期第

Selected Bibliography

A. Primary Sources