現代詩中的食物詩學：史蒂文斯、威廉斯、李立揚

Abstract

本論文旨在對現代詩提出一個以食物作為詮釋焦點的理論系統，其中又特別以三位詩人的作品作為研究的重點對象：華勒斯．史蒂文斯（Wallace Stevens）、威廉．卡洛斯．威廉斯（William Carlos Williams）、李立揚（Li-Young Lee）。論文中所運用以詮釋詩歌的理論系統，發展衍生自德勒茲（Gilles Deleuze）的概念，將食物視為詩文的構成元素，而由食物中詮釋出現代詩中表達的現代人類經驗。透過上述在詩文詮釋中理論實踐，本論文以建立一個嶄新的食物詩學作為研究目標。 論文正文共分六部分，除引介與文獻回顧之外，共計五章。文獻回顧又分為食物與詩學兩部分，因以食物詩學之建立為旨，故食物之文化研究與相關論述、詩學之古典傳統與歷代沿革，二者皆不可或缺。論文的第一章與第二章，是研究的理論主體，前者主張轉移人本精神作為認識物體的一切觀點，改以物體對人的影響出發；後者開始建立詮釋系統，說明如何以德勒茲的觀點，了解食物作為有施為能力的影響源，也影響著對詩的詮釋。第三章、第四章，以及第五章則是分別將此系統運用於三位詩人的作品之中，呈現詮釋各類詩歌的過程與成果。依據詩作中的食物寫作，分為三類：食物意象繁多且關聯隱晦（以史蒂文斯為代表）、食物意象鮮少但一致連貫（以威廉斯為代表）、食物意象多有族裔意涵或節慶典故（以李立揚為代表）。 期盼此研究所發展的詮釋系統，在創立食物詩學、提供抽象晦澀的現代詩些許詮釋之餘，能裨益吾人更進一步了解食物與人類二者關係的不同面向，認識食物對人的主動影響與人在物體世界中的被動角色。使詩歌的詮釋、哲學的思考、認識世界的嶄新向度，三者融合而相互豐富。

This dissertation aims to provide a theoretical reading of food in modern poetry, particularly in poetic works by Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, and Li-Young Lee. The distancing-channeling theory applied to the reading of poetry is based mostly on Gilles Deleuze’s concept of intensity and is employed specifically to realize how food objects as poetic devices interpret human experience in modern poetry. Through the aforementioned theory and its application, this dissertation seeks to establish a food poetics. This dissertation is composed of six major sections, with each section forming a chapter, expect for the first section of Review of Key Literatures, which consists of two subsections. The first section begins with the Introduction which leads to the two-part Review of Key Literatures: Food and Poetics. The emphasis of the literature reviews and their length reflects the challenges and complications of founding a new poetics. The first two chapters: “Chapter One: The Given Food against the Constituted Subject” and “Chapter Two: Distancing and Channeling” are the theoretical backbone of this research. While the former asserts an object-oriented critical point of view instead of an anthropocentric one, the latter establishes a system of poetic reading from this point of view supported by this dissertation and the Deleuzean thoughts that influences it. Chapter Three, Four, and Five are the demonstration of how the system of poetic reading facilitates interpretation of disparate and surreal food objects in poetry (with a focus on Stevens), scarce but succinct food objects in poetry (with a focus on Williams), and ethic or exotic food object in poetry (with a focus on Lee). The interpretive system of this research should, as its set purpose, facilitate the understanding of the relations between food and human beings in a world where objects are more powerful than their human recipients.