論丹尼爾‧狄福《情婦法蘭德斯》與《大疫年紀事》之焦慮

Constant State of Anxiety in Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders and A Journal of the Plague Year

陳郁玟(Yu-Wen. Chen)

指導教授 ： 陳皇華

國立清華大學/人文社會學院/外國語文學系/碩士(2019年)

摘要

本文以丹尼爾．狄福的兩部重要作品《情婦法蘭德斯》(1722) 和《大疫年記事》(1722) 來分析焦慮的概念，並且探討焦慮對於兩位主角摩爾和亨利是如何作為一個保護機制。用心理分析的方式來閱讀這兩部小說有助於探討兩位主角內心潛在不安的原因，也可讓人理解為何法蘭德斯在較富裕時會更處於焦慮的狀態也更著迷於偷竊，也可以明白為何亨利．科爾為何在瘟疫結束時會更加地不安。
藉由仔細檢視這兩部小說，本文針對兩位主角內心焦慮的成因提出一個合理的解釋。以佛洛伊德的概念來說，焦慮是對潛在危險的預期心理。在這兩部小說中，兩位主角似乎因外在的困境而感到苦惱和焦慮，但是焦慮本身是幫忙他們抵禦外在困境的防禦機制。如同佛洛伊德所言：藉由處於「對危險的準備」的焦慮狀態，摩爾與亨利．科爾成功地遠離危險。就這一點來說，主角們生活中的困境並不該被視為是他們焦慮的主因。外在的困境是她偷竊的藉口，而亨利則以之作為辨證天譴與瘟疫之間的關聯性的證據。

關鍵字

焦慮 ； 懼物 ； 圓形監獄

並列摘要

This thesis proposes to analyze the notion of anxiety in Daniel Defoe’s two important novels, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders (1722) and A Journal of the Plague Year (1722), and to investigate how anxiety functions as a protective mechanism for the two protagonists, Moll Flanders and Henry Foe. A psychoanalytical reading of the two novels would be helpful to take a closer look at the inner uneasiness of the two protagonists and to enable people to figure out why Moll seems to be more anxious and feels like stealing more often when she becomes richer and why H.F. seems to be more uneasy when the plague is over.
By careful examining the two novels, this thesis proposes a possible explanation of the cause of the protagonists’ anxiety. In Freudian sense, anxiety is an expectation of a potential danger. Throughout the two novels, the protagonists seem to be anxious and troubled by the external adversities, but anxiety itself is a defense mechanism to help them fight against the adversities. By staying in the state of anxiety, as Sigmund Freud puts it “the preparedness of danger”, Moll and H.F successfully stay away from dangers. In this regard, the external adversities in the protagonists’ lives should not be viewed as the main cause of their anxiety. Instead, the adversities are nothing but extenuating excuses for Moll to steal and the justification for H.F to prove his belief of the correlation between divine retribution and the plague.

並列關鍵字

anxiety ； phobic object ； Panopticon ； the 18th century

參考文獻

Backscheider, Paula R. Moll Flanders: the Making of a Criminal Mind. Woodbridge: Twayne, 1990. Print.

Barlow, David. Anxiety and Its Disorders the Nature and Treatment of Anxiety and Panic. New York: Guilford, 2004. Print.

Blaine, Rodney. Daniel Defoe and the Supernatural. Athens: University of Georgia, 1968. Print.

Birdsall, Virginia. Defoe's Perpetual Seekers: A Study of the Major Fiction. London: Bucknell UP,1985. Print.

Castle, Terry. The Female Thermometer: Eighteenth-Century Culture and the Invention of the Uncanny. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1995. Print.