Gender Configurations in Women from the Lake of Scented Souls: Male Feminism and Its Limitation

試析電影《香魂女》的性別立場：兼論男性作家的女性主義立場及其局限性

Zu-Yan Zhou

《Tamkang Review》 38卷1期 (2007/12) Pp. 171-212

https://doi.org/10.6184/TKR.200712_38(1).0007

摘要

文學評論家曾經在現代男性作家，諸如茅盾，魯迅，柔石，白先勇及黃春明等人的作品中追尋出女性主義意識的蹤迹。但他們同時指出，這些男性作品又往往顯露出男性的優越感及矛盾心理，其女性主義的立場有失自然，並常將女子在作品中作為一種象徵符號。凡此種種，無疑削弱了他們女性主義的立場。女性主義理論認為，男性知識份子在社會中處於特權階層。在文學創作中作為對女性的「調查者」，他們與失去權益的「被調查」的女子之間存在著一道鴻溝。因此，男性作家不可能完全站在女性主義的立場上寫作。那麼，一位經受儒家價值薰陶的男性作家是否可能寫出純粹不二的女性主義的作品呢？對此，當代的中國電影「香魂女」似乎給予了一個肯定的答復，雖然其肯定中還帶著些許保留。該電影取材于小說家周大新的本人經歷。作者初戀的失敗誘發起對其戀人，並進而對整個女性的的深切同情。作品中周大新對女子性權利被剝奪的哀號流露出其本人對男權社會的控訴。男性「調查者」與其筆下女子的精神共鳴促使他站在真純的女性主義的立場上熱誠呼籲女性的解放。然而，在塑造女主角環環的迫害者高二嫂時，作者下意識地採納了「惡毒女家長」的傳統人物模式。這一構思無意中削弱了作品的女性主義立場。男性藝術家的這種矛盾心理同時見諸於電影製作人謝飛的性別立場中。謝飛的作品以同情女性而著稱影壇。在該片中他成功地利用攝影技巧在銀幕上創造出一種女性主義的視角，由此加強了電影的女性主義立場。然而，這一立場卻無意中被其本人企圖將女性角色演變成象徵符號的意圖所削弱。為了說明中國正在被其不忍舍去的封建殘餘所奴役，為了將他的女主角演變成中國的象徵者，謝飛有意識地在環環的潁悟力中構造出某種「缺陷」，而這一「缺陷」最終導致她的沈淪。在周大新的小說中，男性作者與他筆下的女性主角心靈相通，氣息與共。一經謝飛的改編，電影製作者與女性主角之間出現了一種帶有男性優越感的心理隔閡。這勢必影響作品的女性主義主題。在現代中國文學男性作品中女性主義傾向的總體討論中，本文旨在表明男性作家採取真誠的女性主義立場的可能性及其局限性的種種緣由。男性作家由於本人生活經歷，利害衝突，政治異化，以及開明意識可能採取真誠的女性主義立場。然而當作品內容不再涉及本人利益時，男性作家往往轉向傳統的性別立場。周大新對「惡毒女家長」傳統模式的認可以及謝飛對女角色象徵性的利用都表現了這一傾向。這種傾向導致了他們作品中女性主義立場的局限性。

關鍵字

男性作者的女性主義立場 ； 邊緣性男子 ； 象徵寓意 ； 精神共鳴 ； 女性主義關注 ； 女性主義視角 ； 文學人物模式 ； 惡毒女家長

並列摘要

Although critics have traced inscriptions of feminist consciousness in the works of modern male writers, such as Mao Dun, Lu Xun, Rou Shi, Bai Xianyong and Huang Chunming, they indicate a constant condescending attitude, ambivalence, uneasiness and allegorical use of women in such writings, which mitigate their feminist intent. Feminist theory indicates that it is the distance between the male intellectuals as privileged ”investigators” and the underprivileged female ”objects” of their investigation that prevents them from speaking with an unadulterated feminist voice. Can a man imbued with Confucian values produce genuine feminist works? The modern Chinese film Women from the Lake of Scented Souls (1993) seems to provide a positive answer, though with some reservation. The film is adapted from a novella based on the life experience of the novelist Zhou Daxin, whose tragic failure in his first love engendered deep empathy for his high school sweet heart, and then women in general. The deprivation of women's sexual rights that Zhou laments in his novella mirrors his own loss. The spiritual kinship between the male ”investigator” and his female ”object” enables him to present an ardent plea for women's salvation from a genuine feminist position. However, when Zhou turns to portray the heroine Huan-huan's victimizer, the vicious Sister Gao, he subconsciously succumbs to the conventional stereotype of malicious matriarch, that compromises the feminist intent of his work. Ambivalence also features the gender stance of Xie Fei, a screen auteur noted for his sympathetic portrayal of women in his films. While Xie artistically creates a feminist point of view on the screen with his cinematography to reinforce the feminist strength of his film, it is, however, unintentionally weakened in his attempt to allegorize his tale. To project his view that China is enslaved by the feudalistic values that it refuses to give away, and to transform his heroine into a cinematic personification of China, he deliberately creates a ”flaw” in Huan-huan's perception which leads to her own ruin. In so doing, however, the zero distance between the male investigator and the female object in Zhou's novella gives way to a condescending distance in Xie's film, which results in weakening his feminist position. In the large context of male feminism in modern Chinese literature, this study indicates both the possibility of genuine male feminism and the causes of its limitation. While personal experience, injury of personal interest, political/ideological alienation and liberal outlook may lead male scholars to take a genuine feminist stand, they tend to shift to traditional positions when their personal interest is uninvolved, as shown in Zhou's acquiescence of the misogynist stereotype of malicious matriarch and Xie's instinctive inclination for allegorical use of women. This limits the feminism in their works.

並列關鍵字

male Feminism ； marginal man ； allegorical intent ； emotional empathy ； malicious matriarch ； feministic concern ； feminist point of view ； literary stereotype

參考文獻

Barlow, Tani E.(1993).Gender Politics in Modern China: Writing and Feminism.Durham:Duke UP.

Boggs, Joseph M.(1995).The Art of Watching Films.Menlo Park:The Benjamings Publishing Co..

Bordwell, David,Kistin Thompson(1986).Film Art: An Introduction.New York:Alfed A. Knopf.

Chow, Rey,Tonglin Lu (Ed.)(1993).Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Chinese Literature and Society.Albany:State U of New York P.

Dai, Jinhua,Mayfair Mei-Hui Yang (Trans.)(1995).Invisible Women: Contemporary Chinese Cinema and Women`s Film.Positions.3(1),255-280.