「詭態寫實主義」---Uelsmann的詭態攝影蒙太奇

Abstract

本計畫的目的有二。首先，本人試圖說明Jerry Uelsmann（生於1934年）的詭態攝影圖像可作為Bakhtin「詭態寫實主義（grotesque realism）」的範例，其要點乃為「死亡-更新-繁殖（death-renewal-fertility）」。其次，藉由達成以上目的，本人將推翻Bakhtin的論點，亦即「詭態寫實主義」為中古/文藝復興詭態藝術—而非浪漫/現代詭態藝術—的特色。Bakhtin認為，詭態寫實主義的特色，與嘉年華的特色雷同，在於將所謂高尚與理想的觀念降級至物質身體的層次以達到死亡與重生。如此的降級行為所產生的並不是負面、毀壞與駭人的身體，而是允許身體超越自身的侷限，結合宇宙（cosmic）及普遍的元素—如土、水、火、空氣、山、海、河等等—因而具備更新與重生的正面力量。換言之，詭態寫實主義代表著「孕含生命、再次生產的死亡」，藉此標示著生命凌駕死亡，歡笑戰勝恐懼。Bakhtin主張，詭態寫實主義所具備的深層正面力量乃為中古/文藝復興詭態藝術的特點，可見於Pieter Bruegel the Elder的畫作以及法國作家Rabelais的小說Gargantua and Pantagruel（出版於1532年），後者尤其充滿了重生之死亡的詭態意象。在浪漫/現代詭態藝術裡，Bakhtin強調，這種再生力量被減至最低或完全消失：降級不再創造出一個身體的墳墓以供重生而是「一個可怕、與人類離異的世界。」本人將說明，Uelsmann的詭態攝影圖像可作為Bakhtin對於浪漫/現代詭態藝術的（負面）觀點的一個反例。受到Réne Magritte的影響，Uelsmann經常將身體與自然現象—如樹、河、山、岩石等等—結合，藉此以創造廣大的（cosmic）身體，在其中死亡不是否定生命而是生命循環的一部份。而結果即為，誠如Phillip Prodger在論及Uelsmann的圖像所言，「恐怖融合了驚嘆；毀壞的威脅成了希望的象徵。」簡言之，結果即為重生的死亡（a birth-giving death），此乃Bakhtin「詭態寫實主義」觀念的精髓。

The purpose of this project is two-fold. First, I seek to argue that the grotesque photomontages of Jerry Uelsmann (b. 1934) serve to illustrate Bakhtin’s notion of “grotesque realism,” the gist of which is “death-renewal-fertility.” Second, in so doing, I aim to argue against Bakhtin that grotesque realism is proper to the medieval/Renaissance grotesque rather than to the Romantic/modern grotesque. For Bakhtin, grotesque realism, like carnival, features the degradation or debasement of all that is high, exalted, and ideal to the material bodily level for death and rebirth. Such a downward movement does not produce a body that is negative, destructive, and terrifying; instead, it creates a body that transgresses the limits of its isolation to merge with cosmic and universal elements—earth, water, fire, air, mountains, rivers, seas, etc.—and thus has the power to renew and regenerate. Grotesque realism, so to speak, represents “pregnant death, a death that gives birth” and therefore marks the triumph of life over death, of laughter over fear. The deeply positive power of grotesque realism, Bakhtin maintains, is typical of the medieval/Renaissance grotesque as seen in Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s paintings and, notably, Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pantagruel (first published in 1532), a novel full of grotesque images of pregnant and regenerating death. Such regenerating power, Bakhtin emphasises, is reduced to a minimum or completely lost in the Romantic/modern grotesque: degradation does not dig a bodily grave for a new birth but instead engenders “a terrifying world, alien to man.” Uelsmann’s grotesque photomontage, I shall show, serves as a counter example of Bakhtin’s (disparaging) view of the Romantic/modern grotesque. Influenced by Réne Magritte, Uelsmann shows a pronounced tendency to connect human bodies with natural phenomena—trees, rivers, mountains, rocks, etc.—and thereby creates cosmic bodies, ones in which death is not a negation of life but part of life as a whole. The result, as Phillip Prodger writes of Uelsmann’s images, is that “horror is infused with wonder; the treat of destruction becomes an emblem of hope.” The result is, so to say, a birth-giving death, the sine qua non of Bakhtin’s idea of “grotesque realism.”