威廉・布雷克人類世前沿的地質詩學

Abstract

本論文從革命與地質學的互涉來分析威廉・布雷克兩部早期繪書。十八世紀晚期以降地質學知識的進展讓浪漫詩人得以透過地質學的視角理解政治革命。此一取徑地質學的認識論範式促使布雷克另闢所謂「地質詩學」。「地質詩學」是一受能量所驅動的觀看與思維模式，其內涵奠基於詩人跨越多重尺度的詩學賦形——星球即身體。 本論文透過威廉・布雷克與伊拉斯謨斯・達爾文間的對話來梳理布雷克的「地質詩學」。第一章透過閱讀《阿美利加：一個預言》來闡明布雷克與達爾文對革命暴力的殊異見解。達爾文援引詹姆斯・赫頓的地質學理論，企圖將政治革命的起落對應於地質活動週期性的破壞與重整。達爾文轉化赫頓式地球為一檔案媒介，將政治革命納入地球的自體平衡、自我修復系統。在《阿美利加：一個預言》，布雷克聚焦於無名女性的受苦身體。布雷克將痛苦女體比喻為災後地球，強調革命性劇變（無論發生在政治或地質尺度）均將導致週期性的大破壞。第二章透過閱讀《阿爾比恩女兒們的靈視》來討論達爾文繼受自布豐的能量控制觀以及布雷克對達爾文的批判。本章聚焦於地球的同心圓地層結構。同心圓地層結構是地球內部能量得以被控御及採掘的物質基礎。達爾文將同心圓地球進一步轉化為暗箱裝置，並藉此光學媒介揣想一橫貫自然與文化的栩然動態。在《阿爾比恩女兒們的靈視》，布雷克將烏誦的身體塑造為達爾文同心圓地球的微型縮影，並藉此問題化達爾文的地質熱能幻想。若達爾文的同心圓地球投影一變化多端的奇觀，烏誦的地層化身體則顯現鏡像式的反射與疊印。烏誦的困境揭示達爾文流變幻想的虛妄，卻也同時指涉布雷克自身的失落；意即，布雷克無法在採掘主義逐漸鞏固的人類世前沿有所施為。布雷克的「地質詩學」因此是一持續關涉當代人類世處境的未竟志業。對詩人而言，將身體形塑為新地球即是在摸索每一存有皆能被視為獨一個體的可能條件。詩學的賦形正是倫理開始的所在。

This thesis explores William Blake’s two early illuminated books by drawing attention to the dialectic between revolution and geology. The advance of geological knowledge from the late eighteenth century on had enabled Romantic poets to consider political revolution through the lens of geology. This epistemological paradigm concerns Blake, who sets out to develop an alternative poetics called geopoiesis—an energy-driven mode of seeing and thinking that is based on the poet’s trans-scalar figuration: a planet is a body. This thesis explores Blake’s geopoiesis by parsing out the dialogue between William Blake and Erasmus Darwin. Chapter One analyzes America a Prophecy (1793) to explore Blake’s concern about Darwin’s insensitivity toward revolutionary violence. Darwin, by resorting to James Hutton’s geo-theory, envisions that the rise and fall of social revolution corresponds to the cycle of geological destruction and renovation. The Huttonian Earth is hence transfigured into an archival medium, with which Darwin resituates human history within the Earth’s homeostatic, self-repairing system. In America a Prophecy, Blake calls attention to the shadowy daughter’s ravaged body. Imagining a body in throes as the Earth in ruins, Blake emphasizes that revolutionary upheaval—political and geological alike—wreaks havoc over and over. Chapter Two analyzes the Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793) to examine Blake’s critique of Darwin’s Buffon-inspired concept of energy control. This chapter highlights the Earth’s concentric strata—a geomorphic structure that renders subterranean energy manageable and extractable for humankind. Darwin reconfigures the concentric Earth as a camera obscura, with which he conjures up one vivid flow of change that vitalizes both nature and culture. In the Visions, Blake questions Darwin’s geothermal vision by figuring Oothoon’s body as a microcosm of Darwin’s concentric Earth. Whereas Darwin’s concentric Earth projects one phantasmagorical spectacle, Oothoon’s stratified body showcases mirrorlike reflection and superimposition. Oothoon’s predicament belies Darwin’s ever-becoming vision; however, it also epitomizes Blake’s failure to effect any change as resource extractivism began to gather impetus at the dawn of the Anthropocene. Blake’s geopoiesis is hence an unfulfilled project that continues to address the Anthropocene here and now. To see one’s body as a new Earth, for Blake, is to figure out a condition of possibility where every singular being can be seen as inherently blessed. Poetic figuration is thus where ethics begins.