雄渾、恐怖、與他者---勒孚克萊夫特之恐怖科幻小說(II-I)

Abstract

Lovecraft執念之終極恐怖層次，除了與語言系統與人類主體的界限關聯甚密，文本的 研究發現，此一恐怖層次，更深的架構在「尺度」（magnitude）上，是超越了人類知識 與符號系統所能理解與表述，既是時間、也是空間層次上的「大尺度」（grand magnitude）。此一尺度的導入，賦予Lovecraft恐怖科幻作品，獨特的美學感受性，與 「雄渾」（the sublime）的概念產生呼應。然而雄渾不僅與恐怖有很深的聯繫，本計畫至 為關切者，更是雄渾與符號的能與不能，以及與他者（alterity）議題的交會，因雄渾 最基本之定義，即是主體（伴隨著符號系統）與「大尺度」的他者相遇之情感經驗。 英國思想家柏克（Edmund Burke）1759年出版的《哲學式探究我們對於雄渾與美的思 想之源》，及其與康德《判斷性（力量）批判》的思想出入，為本計畫取徑上的關注點。 柏克較康德更早談及雄渾的「尺度」問題，並充分闡述雄渾與恐怖的相依性，更處理到 康德未觸及之雄渾與符號系統的關係。本計畫將以此為出發點，以目前正執行中之計 畫成果為基底，進一步擴展對Lovecraft恐怖科幻作品的文本研究。

The dimension of horror that Lovecraft mostly concerns himself with has a strong intimation of the limit of both the language system and human subjectivity. Yet, according to certain research of mine, this dimension has been deeply structured around the magnitude at so grand a level that it has far surpassed not only the comprehension and discourse of human knowledge and sign system, but human temporality and spatiality. The discovery of this grand magnitude in Lovecraft’s horror science fiction suggests that the aesthetic nuances of the specific genre in Lovecraft’s hand share a sonorous sounding of sublimity. Reduced to its basics, the sublime is none other than the affective experience of an encounter between the subject of sign system and the other at its most grand level. What this project is meant to focus on, therefore, is the conceptual and textual connections that can be built into the nexus of sublimity, terror, sign system, and alterity. The theoretical primer this project will have recourse to is Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (2nd edition, 1759), as well as the contrast between Burke’s conception of the sublime and Kant’s of the same issue as is expounded in his third critique, The Critique of the Power of Judgment. In a way, Burke has much earlier than Kant dealt with the problematic of sublimity in view of magnitude. The relational significance of terror (or horror) and the nature of the sublime has been detailed in Burke’s book also in a much fuller and even more radical way than in Kant’s. More important, Burke has tackled the issue that is found missing in Kant, namely, the ambiguity at the occurrence where the sublime meets the sign system, as well as the obscurity both terms may share by nature. This project will depart from these aesthetic and philosophical concerns, going further into the literary studies of Lovecraft’s horror science fiction, with the hope that my previous studies on the same author can itself develop into a more mature form.