重讀《哈利波特》：賽博格與後人類他者

Re-reading the Harry Potter Series: Cyborgs and Posthuman Others

傅婉婷(Fu Wan-Ting)

指導教授 ： 狄亞倫

國立臺灣師範大學/文學院/英語學系/碩士(2020年)

https://doi.org/10.6345/NTNU202001663

摘要

儘管《哈利波特》七部曲的最後一本書在2007年出版至今已十三年，該系列的影響力仍隨著哈利波特現象的發展而繼續，並激發了電影界與文學相關衍生作品。本論文建立了《哈利波特》與後人類主義之間的聯繫，以分析該系列在文學領域的深遠影響和持續動能。該系列之奇幻特色以生與死的終極母題，混合傳統文學中的元素雜匯在一起吸引讀者，並體現了其對當代VR或智慧科技的適應性：此類科技使用戶比以往任何時候都更接近沉浸式體驗。此現象與人類的焦慮與無可避免地接受相關聯、游牧、包容的後人類主觀性以及不斷進化的科技有關。
本論文采用羅西‧布拉伊多蒂（Rosi Braidotti）的後人類批判理論，旨在將《哈利波特》系列作為後人類文本加以考察，將書中主要角色描繪為體現後人類主觀性的賽博格，並進一步分析其與後人類他者包括生物、社區、宇宙的關係。
為能夠對作為後人類文本的《哈利波特》進行詳細分析，並連繫該文本與當代社會的普遍焦慮和關懷，本論文采用了蘇曼‧古普塔（Suman Gupta）的「文本至世界」研究方法來研究文本及其對社會與政治之影響。本論文主張，將《哈利波特》作為賽博格與後人類他者之文本重讀，可使我們將注意力集中在當代人類與科技之間的關係上，例如智能設備與VR裝備，以及我們在物理和虛擬世界中的定位。此外，本論文旨在提醒我們注意科技的無限可能以及對我們未來體現的主體性之認可。

關鍵字

哈利波特 ； 賽博格 ； 後人類他者 ； 布拉伊多蒂 ； 後人類批判

並列摘要

Despite that the last book of the Harry Potter Series was published nearly 13 years ago in 2007, the series’ dynamic continues as the Harry Potter phenomenon, and inspires the filming industry and extensive literary works. This thesis establishes the connection between the Harry Potter Series and the Posthumanism in order to analyze the series’ profound influence and continuous dynamic in the literature field. The fantasy features of the series attract readers with the ultimate motif of life and death, mélange of elements from mixed traditional literature, and embody the adaptability into contemporary VR or smart technologies, which involves users closer to the immerging experience than we could ever be before. This phenomenon reconnects to humans’ anxiety and inevitable acceptance of relative, nomadic, and inclusive posthuman subjectivity and the constantly evolving progress of technology.
Adopting Rosi Braidotti’s theory of the Critical PostHumanities, this thesis aims to examine the Harry Potter series as a posthuman text by depicting the main characters as cyborgs which embodies the posthuman subjectivity, and further analyze their relationship with the posthuman others, including creatures, communities, and the cosmos (Posthuman, 100).
To enable a close analysis of the Harry Potter series as a posthuman text and relate this analysis to contemporary social anxiety and concerns, this thesis adapts Suman Gupta’s text-to-world methodology to contemplate on the text and its social and political effects (1). This thesis argues that re-reading the Harry Potter series as a text of cyborgs and posthuman others brings our attention to contemporary relationship of humans and technologies such as smart devices and VR gadgets, as well as our positions in both the physical and virtual worlds. We are also reminded to pay attention to the infinite possibilities of technologies and recognition of our subjectivities we embody in the future.

並列關鍵字

Harry Potter ； cyborg ； posthuman others ； Braidotti ； the Critical PostHumanities

參考文獻

Badmington, Neil, editor. Readers in Cultural Criticism: Posthumanism. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2000. Print.

Barton, Benjamin H. “Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Bureaucracy.” Rev. of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J. K. Rowling. Michigan Law Review, 104.6, (2006): 1523-1538. Web. 5 December 2017.

Bird, Jackson. “'Harry Potter' Helped Me Come Out as Trans, But J.K. Rowling Disappointed Me.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 Dec. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/12/21/opinion/jk-rowling-twitter-trans.html.

Bloom, Harold. “Can 35 Million Book Buyers Be Wrong? Yes.” The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, vol. 19, no. 4, 2001, pp. 49–51., Web. 30 March 2020.

Braidotti, Rosi. Posthuman Knowledge. Polity Press, 2019.