＂Pigs!＂: Gothic Racial Stereotype and Repressed Fear in Patrick McCabe’s The Butcher Boy

「豬！」：派屈克．馬克白《屠夫男孩》中的志異種族刻板印象和壓抑恐懼

吳彥祺(Yen-Chi Wu)

《小說與戲劇》 23卷2期 (2014/06) Pp. 1-21

https://doi.org/10.6271/fd.2014.23.2.01

摘要

派屈克．馬克白的《屠夫男孩》講述一位愛爾蘭男孩的謀殺故事：被形容成豬的主人翁化身為屠夫男孩將親英的鄰居太太像豬一樣的殺害。突顯小說中「豬」的意象，本文試圖證明豬是愛爾蘭民族志異化的種族刻板印象。在英國殖民期間，殖民者常藉由志異想像將愛爾蘭民族刻畫為反叛而暴力的豬。然而，志異化的「豬眾」概念反而讓愛爾蘭反叛人士視為踰越的象徵。獨立後的愛爾蘭國族主義份子更進一步擁抱愛爾蘭文化的鄉野性，企圖將愛爾蘭文化的原始性做為對抗英國文化現代性的國族表徵。《屠夫男孩》背景設於1960年代之際，正是愛爾蘭從保守國族主義過渡到現代化的轉型期。在現代化的觀點下，愛爾蘭的文化原始性再度被認為是負面的形象。在此歷史背景下，主人翁方濟與豬的意象角力的過程可視為愛爾蘭民族與其種族刻板印象與文化原始性持續協商的狀況。由此看來，這些在殖民時期遺留下來的種族刻板印象，成為愛爾蘭人民在現代化過程中必須面對的「壓抑的恐懼」。本篇論文，將《屠夫男孩》中的志異種族刻板印象視為壓抑的恐懼，探討在現代化的進逼下，愛爾蘭民族如何持續與其文化的原始性角力協商。

關鍵字

派屈克．馬克白 ； 《屠夫男孩》 ； 志異 ； 種族刻板印象 ； 壓抑恐懼 ； 豬

並列摘要

Patrick McCabe’s ＂The Butcher Boy’ features a pig-like young murderer who turns out to be a butcher boy and slaughters his Anglicized neighbor like a hog. Underlining the prominent ＂pig＂ image, this essay demonstrates that pig is a Gothicized racial stereotype of the Irish people. In the long colonial era, the British had borrowed much from the Gothic trope in order to characterize Irish people as insurgent pigs. The idea of the ＂swinish multitude,＂ through Gothic rendering, was conversely transformed into a symbol of transgression for the Irish political agitators. After the nation’s independence, Irish nationalists further endeavored to imbue pride in Irish primitivism, taking it as a national emblem against the modern and British cultural influences. ＂The Butcher Boy＂ is set at the turn of the 1960s, when conservative nationalism gave way to a modernizing project. Under the values of modernization, Irish primitivism is again dismissed as derogatory. Against this backdrop, the protagonist Francie’s struggle with the pig image signifies Irish people’s unceasing negotiation of their racial stereotypes and their cultural primitivism. From this perspective, the racial stereotypes of the Irish people, which were a remnant of the colonial era, represent a ＂repressed fear＂ that recurs to the nation as it launches its modernizing project. This essay, treating the Gothicized racial stereotype as a repressed fear in ＂The Butcher Boy＂, examines Irish people’s continued struggle with their cultural primitivism in the face of the modernizing world.

並列關鍵字

Patrick McCabe ； The Butcher Boy ； the Gothic ； racial stereotype ； repressed fear ； pig

參考文獻

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