「所有的惡臭都是疾病」：論迪更斯《荒涼山莊》的衛生論述與道德經濟

Abstract

迪更斯擅以城市地景為寫作素材，透過描繪社會底層卑微求生的日常生活，呈現城市貧民窟的擁擠與污穢，藉此揉入他的批判與關懷。本文企圖比對迪更斯的小說《荒涼山莊》與同時期查德維克引領的衛生改造運動，分析何以公共衛生政策首重通風、明亮、乾爽的居住環境，何以迪更斯的小說揭櫫正常化政治的權力運作，又何以醫學寫實與都會醫學大量導入監視生活習慣與管理環境衛生的操作，成為國家醫學中規訓日常生活操作的監視政治。迪更斯揭示日常生活經驗中所「見」所「聞」的瑣碎細節，藉由檢視環境污染與疾病傳染，建立標準、排斥異常根絕疾病、強化健康的醫學正常化機制：日常生活中種種不潔的環境因素不再僅是建立健康城市的參照標準，也是城市居民可感之、可探之且可避之的感染源。

This paper reads Dickens' ＂Bleak House＂ in light of the collective resolution in sanitary reforms led by Edwin Chadwick during the Victorian period. By tracing the formation of correlation between cleanliness, lighting, good ventilation, hygiene and health in contrast to filth, staleness, dampness and illness as formulated in slum narratives, this paper proposes an economy of morality implanted in Victorian cognition of sanitation. The keen awareness of the possible intimidation to human health and public welfare is materialized and medicalized in detailed description of corruption of life habit and the degradation of the quality of living environment. Dickens' city slum becomes a place most promising for unseen and unpredicted dangers and the arena most likely for any social movement and policymaking to take place. As a result, an economy of medical realism and health normatism is thereby established in witnessing everyday life practices in urban slums and weighing the threat to public health. Health, as a result, becomes a malleable and manageable issue in safeguarding all normal and disregarding all abnormal practices in everyday life.