卡蘿的疾病誌：失能主體的思辯

Abstract

本篇論文將自失能、女性、族群等弱勢身分探討卡蘿（Frida Kahlo）的疾病書寫與主體認同，以失能研究（disability studies）為論述主軸。失能研究繼性別、族群、種族等弱勢族裔研究後，已在歐美人文學界蔚為一新興學門，而失能者的生命書寫於本世紀初已成為傳記出版的最大宗。卡蘿的生命故事其實就是一部疾病誌，本篇論文以卡蘿的失能與疾病書寫為主題，探討卡蘿如何書寫或展現失能身體，如何表述她的主體，如何呈現失能的文化意義。論文參照卡蘿的畫作、傳記、日記、以及訪談，自心理分析的角度，剖析卡蘿如何銘刻與建構自我之身體與身分認同。簡言之，論文透過疾病誌及失能研究的角度，再現卡蘿因失能與意外所形成的脆弱主體，對比她在文化藝術上所表徵的超人主體，並開展失能者之為脆弱主體或超人主體的對話與思辯；據此，本文析論並再現失能主體如何在文化論述中被形塑建構。

Disability studies, along with studies on gender, age, race, and other such classifications, has been in the making since 1970s as a new field of study to redress the social voicelessness and institutional neglect of the disabled people. Based on this study, the essay tackles Frida Kahlo's illness narrative to examine the construction of the disabled as vulnerable subject or super(wo)man subject, and by doing so, it intends to neutralize the dehumanizing effects of societal discriminations against the disabled. The essay examines Kahlo's letters, diary, and paintings to access her unique psychic lives and subjectivity, with special emphasis on her feelings of experiencing the other or the abject. Indeed, Kahlo's life writing can be also read as pathography. Her body, wounded, pierced, or distorted, however, is not only the center of agony but also the ideal place for sublimation and transcendence. The essay concludes by undermining the cultural presumption or stereotypical pinning down of the disabled as a vulnerable subject, and, instead, it highlights the uncertainty and variability of the subjectivity of people with disabilities.