論瑪格莉特. 愛特伍燒厝之晨中哀悼政治與記憶的展現

Abstract

摘要 本論文的主旨在於探討瑪格麗特•愛特伍的《燒厝之晨》透過第一人稱敘述者的方式，來凸顯哀悼與記憶的主題，來紀念作者的父親卡爾•愛特伍及其死亡，進而分析敘述者在她父親死後的過程中所產生的敘述手法，尤其是詩學的語言展現、個人記憶及歷史重新省察。本論文著重在愛特伍如何透過詩中敘述者的觀點來再現父親的影像、敘述者如何和死者交涉溝通而形成的關係以及敘述者如何重說歷史事件。換句話說，本論文強調愛特伍詩裡所側重的哀悼與記憶之間的倫理關係及其必然性。這些面向常被批評家所忽略，批評家大部分著重在愛特伍的小說作品，鮮少注意到愛特伍的詩有此複雜的面向。透過詩學的語言展現與文本分析，《燒厝之晨》提供了富有張力的表現，透露出「死者」已儼然成為愛特伍的寫作中一個十分重要的關懷。 本研究共計五章，第一章緒論說明研究動機、目的與方法。第二章分析愛特伍詩裡的「哀悼」主題來切入，引用法國哲學家德西達的論點，討論哀悼的概念及其哲學思想作為提供本論文的一個很重要理論基礎架構。第三章延續德西達的論點來解釋「記憶」如何與哀悼構成一個糾結的關係。第四章跳脫出父親的影像，選擇以個人記憶方式與家庭史來做分析，強調敘述者如何透過再現、重說故事的方式來和死者與歷史做一個重新的溝通交涉。第五章為結論，說明解釋本論文所選擇的文本與問題意識，追溯到早期愛特伍的寫作主題到晚期的轉變，強調「死亡」與「哀悼」為其重要的主題發展，因此，《燒厝之晨》是愛特伍寫作生涯過程極為重要的一本著作。

Abstract In Morning in the Burned House (1995), Margaret Atwood (1939-) uses a first person speaker to foreground such themes as mourning and nostalgia in memory of her father Carl Atwood and of his untimely death. In my thesis, I take Atwood’s Morning in the Burned House as an example of memorial address to analyze the speaker’s mourning in the wake of her father’s death, especially the way in which she works through her poetic language performances, individual memories, and historical re-vision. My concerns are how the speaker in the poems re-presents the father’s image, how the speaker negotiates with the dead, and how the speaker re-tells the historical event in Morning in the Burned House. In other words, this thesis highlights the problematics of Atwood’s poems on the ethical relations and ethical necessity between mourning and memory. These complexities are often neglected by critics as they tend to focus on Atwood’s novels. Through the examination of Atwood’s poetic language performance and textual analysis, Morning in the Burned House offers an intensification of ongoing concern, demonstrating that the dead has been central to Atwood’s writing. My thesis consists of five chapters with introduction and conclusion. Chapter One, “Introduction,” highlights the problematics of Morning in the Burned House. Chapter Two, “Keep Mourning in Memory,” analyzes Atwood’s mournful poems in the wake of the speaker’s father’s death. Derrida’s works of mourning and philosophical thought will provide a very important perspective to examine Atwood’s poetry. Chapter Three, “Keep Memory in Mourning,” explores Derrida’s arguments about the entanglement of mourning and memory to reflect on the impossible necessity of mourning. Chapter Four, “Revisioning the Dead,” delves into family’s history and language through Atwood’s “Half-hanged Mary.” Chapter Five, “Conclusion,” serves to conclude this thesis with an attempt to recap major themes of Atwood’s Morning in the Burned House.