透過畫家之眼：約翰●厄普代克《兔子，跑》裡間接的直接性

Abstract

本文旨在探討約翰‧厄普代克(1932-2009)最為人知的小說《兔子，跑》。作品當中因間接援引了畫作以及窗戶的讀畫文(ekphrasis)，反而直接帶給讀者一九五零年代美國郊區的生活感受。因為使用畫作及窗戶這兩個視覺媒介，作者成功地將圖畫的視覺、心理、社會層面轉譯於字裡行間。本篇論文將會分析讀畫文如何藉由視覺運用重現美國人民在五零年代的心理感受及社會氛圍。 論文第一章節以厄普代克的三本藝術評論為文本。透過作者的藝術評論，我將介紹他受到現代主藝的諸多影響以及他的美學觀點和藝評寫作風格，並且藉由藝評提供有關於1950年代美國的背景知識。 第二章會比較《兔子，跑》與厄普代克針對四位畫家：Jan Vermeer, Ameodeo Modigliani, Edward Hopper and Jackson Pollock作品撰寫藝術評論的相似處。藉由比較小說與藝術評論，我希望能證明作者於小說中用文字創作了畫作，且那些畫作是被當作重現當代美國社會平庸性(middleness)的客觀對應物(objective correlatives)。 並進一步申論，為了與中庸性共存，畫家看世界的方法能夠提供角色們一種存在策略，去歌頌並且超越無味、緊繃、孤寂的現代美國社會。 第三章則著重在日常的視線，將說明作家不是只依賴第二章的名畫家之眼。相反的，透過角色們與日常的窗戶的互動，我們更能具體感知一九五零年代的冷戰在美國郊區的日常生活中如何操演。在小說中，窗戶複雜又模稜的物質性反映也啟發了角色們在冷戰中的想法。

The thesis aims to suggest that in Rabbit, Run (1960), the most famous novel of John Updike (1932-2009), the author creates ekphrasis of paintings and the windows for the purpose of rendering the immediate experience felt in the 1950s America. Chapter One will take Updike’s three works of art criticism—Just Looking (1989), Still Looking (2005) and Always Looking (2012)— as its main texts. Through his art criticisms, I shall introduce Updike’s modernist influence, aesthetics and the general way he talks about art. Chapter Two compares the ekphrastic similarities between Rabbit, Run and Updike’s art criticisms on Jan Vermeer, Ameodeo Modigliani, Edward Hopper and Jackson Pollock. By doing so, I hope to provide evidence that Updike does use different painting modes in the novel, and the verbal paintings are there for a reason. I shall argue that the verbal paintings are used as objective correlatives of what Updike calls “middleness.” To cope with that middleness, the painterly seeing offers the characters a strategy of being, which glorifies and transcends anonymity, tension and alienation that are peculiar to modern American society. Chapter Three focuses on the deepening of everyday seeing. The chapter shows that Updike is not merely reliant on the allusive sort of seeing discussed in Chapter Two. Rather, seeing through the window, where the characters’ eyes often focused, is as valuable. In the novel, the complex materiality of the window reflects and inspires the characters’ consciousness. The window thus gives readers a concrete form to revisit the abstract Cold War felt by the suburban Americans in 1950s.