A being of sound: Musical Space, Silence and Questionability in Wallace Stevens' Poetry

「音的生命體」：瓦勒斯‧史蒂文斯詩歌中的音樂空間、寂靜及體問

史文生(Frank W. Stevenson)

《Hwa Kang English Journal》 17卷2期 (2011/10) Pp. 1-26

https://doi.org/10.7109/HKEJ.201110.0002

摘要

瓦勒斯‧史蒂文斯（Wallace Stevens）的詩歌從未直接描繪我們可親身體驗的外在現實，而是激發讀者對外在世界的想像，甚而使讀者與想像中的外在世界水乳交融。史蒂文斯透過隱喻、無特定意義純粹為諧音的詞……等諸般用來瓦解秩序、製造渾沌的手法，從抽象的語言系統（langue）出發，在話語（parole）的場域做出一場動人的詩歌演出，從而激發讀者的想像活動。已有學者指出音樂在史蒂文斯詩歌中的重要性，而本文則將史蒂文斯的詩歌中的空間視為音樂空間，從三個角度來探討此一空間：（一）米歇爾‧塞瑞斯（Michel Serres）的混沌理論及資訊理論；（二）史蒂文斯詩歌中「地方」的界定，以及德勒茲（Gilles Deleuze）和瓜塔里（Félix Guattari）所說的將動物界的溝通「去疆域化」；（三）葛羅茲（Elizabeth Grosz）演繹達爾文的論述，將音樂視為動物欲望的一種表現；而這種欲望則可進一步衍伸為好奇的求知欲。本文認為我們可以將史蒂文斯詩歌中的「地方」視為一種如同音樂般流動空間，一種由聲音與寂靜交織而成，可供不斷地推測、探索、體問的開放空間。

關鍵字

瓦勒斯‧史蒂文斯 ； 音樂空間 ； 語言系統 ； 話語 ； 陌生化 ； 隱喻

並列摘要

Wallace Stevens' poetry does not try to directly express reality in the way of an empirical ”description” but rather makes us imagine the real (external, empirical) world so intensely that in some way we enter or merge with it. But the force of this ”imagining” is that of the vast system of langue, including the chaotic disruptions of metaphor and even occasional nonsense words chosen for their sound, when it is enacted as parole, ”poetic speech.”While the central role of music in Stevens' poiesis has been noted before, this paper will look at his poetic space as a ”musical space” in terms of (1) chaos and information theory, especially as explicated by Michel Serres; (2) the problem of ”place” in Stevens' poetry and Deleuze-Guattari's view of music as the ”deterritorialization” of animal communication (e.g. birdsong); and (3) Elizabeth Grosz's Darwinian-based analysis of music as the force or expression of a desire which can also be seen, it will now be suggested, as curiosity (the desire to know). The central idea will thus be that we might take the ”place” of Stevens' poems as a musical space now understood as a space of tentative exploration, silence and circularity, a space of open-ended or purely speculative questioning.

並列關鍵字

Wallace Stevens ； musical space ； langue ； parole ； defamiliarization ； metaphor

參考文獻

Adams, Hazard(ed.)(1971).Critical Theory Since Plato.New York:Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich.

Attali, Jacques,McClary, Susan(Afterword)(1985).Noise: The Political Economy of Music.Minneapolis:U of Minnesota Press.

Baym, Nina(Ed.)(2003).The Norton Anthology of American Literature.New York:W.W. Norton and Company.

Bloom, Harold(ed.)(1985).Wallace Stevens: Modern Critical Views.New York:Chelsea House.

Bogue, Ronald(2003).Deleuze on Music, Painting and the Arts.New York:Routledge.