感覺，感官，與超諸人類的：維吉尼亞．吳爾芙的倫理式美學

Abstract

本論文主要在探討維吉尼亞．吳爾芙作品中的「倫理式美學」。吳爾芙作為一個對社會議題敏銳的現代主義者，一直以來，她作品的特色不只彰顯在創新的寫作手法上，更在於對他/牠/它者的道德關懷。在這樣的前提之下，透過關注吳爾芙筆下角色的感官和知覺經驗，並且將這些視為「物件」來看待；我們將可以更清楚明瞭在現代社會中，現代性的議題以及人物的感官知覺與社會環境的交互影響。另外，更重要的是，這些「物件」可以提供讀者倫理的視角，進而去重新思索和定義自我與他人、主體與客體、人類與非人之間的關係。本論文第一章著重於處理現代主義脈絡中，真實與再現的議題。本章主張吳爾芙式的現代主義美學，是基於對現代性來臨的反思與反應。第二章則將真實與再現的議題擴展到倫理的層面，並以此將吳爾芙的倫理與當代理論連結而進行對話。本章建構了本論文的理論框架，認為吳爾芙藉由描寫人物的感官與知覺，表達她對邊緣化群體的倫理關注。接續的三章則為文本分析；著重在解讀人物感覺和感官的物件性。第三章探討了《戴維洛夫人》中的視覺及聽覺感官經驗，說明了吳爾芙如何利用此物件性來掙脫國族主義的桎梏。第四章則是比較《燈塔行》和《幕間》兩本小說。本章主張透過視覺及聽覺的描寫，吳爾芙利用這些物件性來抵抗單一文化及一元性的價值觀。最後的第五章則探討了《一隻叫活力的狗》中的嗅覺；並主張這些嗅覺的物件性能夠模糊化人類與非人的界線性。本論文透過關注吳爾芙作品中人類的感覺和感官的物件性，試圖將現代主義之中的美學和倫理立場連結起來；我並將其稱為「倫理式美學」。我希冀能在現代主義相關的研究中證明：吳爾芙並非如所被批評般的擁抱菁英主義。事實上吳爾芙一直以來都不遺餘力地在她的著作中，展現了對邊緣化和脆危群體的道德責任。關鍵字: 倫理、美學、感覺、感官、物件、感知、真實、再現、吳爾芙This dissertation seeks to investigate Virginia Woolf's "ethical aesthetics" embedded in her works. As a modernist sensitive to social issues, Woolf features not only her innovative writing skills but her ethical consideration towards others. At this point, by approaching sensations and senses demonstrated in Woolf's writings as things, we can better understand the issue of modernity and the interplay between characters' sensory perceptions and social environment. Significantly, these things offer us an ethical lens to reconsider and redefine therelations between the self and others, the subject and the object, and the human and the nonhuman.Chapter 1 highlights the issues of reality and representation in Woolf's work in a modernist context. It also contends that Woolf's modernist aesthetics is the response to the attack on modernity. Chapter 2 broadens the scope of the problems of reality and representation to an ethical level, associating Woolf's ethics with contemporary theories. It builds the theoretical framework with Woolf's oeuvre, arguing that the display of characters' sensations and senses is Woolf's ethical manner to show her concerns for the marginalized. The following three chapters are textual analyses focusing on reading the thingness in characters' sensations and senses. Chapter 3 deals with the audiovisual senses in Mrs. Dalloway, showing how Woolf utilizes thingness to destabilize nationalism. Chapter 4 is a comparison and contrast between To the Lighthouse and Between the Acts. From the visual to the audio descriptions, Woolf uses these things to defend the unitary values encroaching on life. Chapter 5 grapples with the sense of smell in Flush, as the thing blurs the boundary between the human and the nonhuman. By paying attention tothe characters' sensations and senses, I try to link aesthetics and ethics in modernist literature and then I identify this as "ethical aesthetics." I expect my contribution to modernist studies is: that without embracing elitism, Virginia Woolf shows her ethical responsibilities to the marginalized and the vulnerable in her writings.

Keywords: ethics, aesthetics, sensation, sense, thing, perception, reality, representation, Woolf