對《戀愛中的女人》原始主義之再思

Abstract

本論文主張，在「原始主義」的外表下，也就是西方與非西方之二元理論基礎，勞倫斯在《戀愛中的女人》，運用此種比喻以及其他相關的二元對立觀念，於實質上強調了均衡的議題（精神、心理、身體、文化等層面）。第一章廣泛地討論了二十世紀的藝術中，對原始意象的再現；並歸納出對於原始他者的再現方式有二：其一是延續了對原始他者所產生的兩種極端投射，其二則藉由此他者提供了混雜性，為抵抗文化階級帶來更多的可能。我從這些不同的再現意義出發，深入探討《戀愛中的女人》何以被解讀成是一部帶有原始主義意識型態的小說（第二章與第三章），以及為何必須正面看待這小說的「原始主義」（第四章）。第二章聚焦在女性的「文化形象」，呈現女性角色與非洲意象的象徵性連結。第三章分析男性角色的文化形象，以及男性角色與小說中所稱的「北方原則」，也就是陽剛的西方意象，之間的象徵性連結。第四章交叉地解讀這些角色的文化形象，同時試圖闡明角色與意象間複雜的交錯相關性（比如：女性角色與北方原則的共通性，以及男性角色與非洲意象的相似處）。我認為這些隱含在小說中的交錯性面向，一方面顛覆了一般認為原始主義只會傳遞性別層面的意識型態之看法；另一方面也推翻了北方與非洲意象的對立衝突性。最後我希望透過此論文呈現出，《戀愛中的女人》在某種程度上是二分法的結構，但這正是勞倫斯藉以提倡「平衡的」生活觀與世界觀之途徑。This thesis argues that under the ostensible “primitivism,” or dualism posited between the West and the non-West, D. H. Lawrence’s Women in Love in effect employs this dualism, along with many other types of dualism, to address the issue of equilibrium (mental, psychological, bodily, and cultural). Chapter One discusses the representations of the primitive image in twentieth-century art in general: some reinscribe polarized projections toward the primitive Other whereas others promote possibilities of resistance in hybridity to cultural hierarchy. With the examination of these different representations as a point of departure, I further explore why Women in Love is often treated as a primitivist novel (Chapters Two and Three), and how the “primitivism” in Women in Love should be taken as something positive (Chapter Four). Chapter Two focuses on the “cultural image” of every major female character, showing the symbolic connections between each female character and the African image. Chapter Three reads every major male character’s cultural image and these men’s symbolic linkages with what we may call the Nordic principle, the masculine West. Chapter Four reads all these cultural images criss-crossingly and seeks to elucidate intricate intersections among them (e.g., the proximity between the female characters and the Nordic principle, the affinity between the men and the African symbol). These intersections, I will suggest, upset the conventionally-held gendered discourse of primitivism, on the one hand, and opposition between the Nordic and the African principles, on the other. Ultimately I hope to show in this study that, if there are dichotomies in Women in Love, Lawrence posits them to promote a “balanced” view of life, of the world.