透過您的圖書館登入
IP:3.237.5.1
  • 期刊
  • OpenAccess

「超感生的表面」 梅爾維爾《皮耶》中的感官書寫

"Superinduced Superficies" Writing of the Sensual in Melville's Pierre

摘要


美國十九世紀早期隨著出版的自由和在印刷技術、書籍運銷的改進,見證了各種顛覆性流行文學的充斥,如濫情(sensational)、犯罪(criminal)、浪漫冒險(Romance-adventure)、偽科學相關的文學。這些極端民主化(radical-democrat)的作品透過非理性的情節來暴露當時美國社會背離了共和國的理想。學者大衛•雷諾斯(David S. Reynolds)就認爲,主要作家如艾德格•愛倫坡(Edgar Allen Poe)、納森尼爾•霍桑(Nathaniel Hawthorne)、赫爾曼•梅爾維爾(Herman Melville)等等,卻對這類文學採取懷疑的態度,並以不同的方式批評或諷刺這些流行文學中改革思想的矛盾性與弔詭性。 梅爾維爾《皮耶》(Pierre, 1852)中的主角皮耶的經歷可說是十九世紀美國一個年輕作家的感官歷史。故事結合了傷感、煽情、浪漫旅行敘事,並充斥各種「曖昧」的愛情與親情關係,以及各種感官經驗的誇張描寫,除了造成流動的主體性之外,也解構了當時的超越論思想(transcendentalism)中感官的階級性。然而,小說中也強調感官書寫的侷限性。對梅爾維爾來說,感官的書寫並無法完全透視描寫對象的「不可知性」(inscrutableness)。此外,世界即「超感生的表面」,而其背後即虛無。而此虛無即體現在皮耶最後喪失感官功能,導致感官的錯亂,而步入了自我滅亡的悲劇;也就是說,極端矛盾的感官經驗最後可能導致主體陷入空無的深淵而無法自拔。

關鍵字

梅爾維爾 瑟赫 皮耶 感官 感官書寫 超越主義

並列摘要


During the early nineteenth century, especially since 1830s, with the rise of free press and the improvement of printing technology and book sales, the era witnessed the proliferation of popular subversive literature, including sensational, criminal, Romance-adventure, pseudo-scientific literature. These ”radical-democrat” works employ irrational plots and themes to expose how the republic deviates from the ideals of the founded nation. But major writers, such as Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville, problematize in various ways the ambiguity and paradox of reform spirit embedded in these popular literature. In Melville's Pierre: or its Ambiguity (1852), Pierre's experience can be regarded as the history of a young author who writes sensational literature during the nineteenth century. The novel consists of sentimental, sensational, romance-adventure elements filled with various deviated, ambiguous relationships, and exaggerated descriptions of sensual experiences. The writing of these sensual experiences not only constructs the fluid subjectivity, but also subverts the transcendentalist thought that privileges the power of sight. Despite this, the novel also points out the limitations of sensual writing because it can never penetrate the ”inscrutableness” of represented objects. For Melville, the world consists of ”superinduced superficies”; and behind them is just void. This pessimism is manifested when Pierre, in order to write a ”great book,” suffers from the derangement of senses that finally result in his tragic self-destruction. In other words, radical sensual experiences may cause the subject to fall into the abyss of the void.

延伸閱讀