身體的論述: 從生態女性主義角度探討愛特伍的兩本反烏托邦小說

Abstract

有關身體的論述，一直是人類生存史上最富爭議性的話題之一。文學作品中對於身體的描寫，尤其是在烏托邦的場域裡，往往打破了生理的枷鎖，超越了理性的束縛，並且被賦予多方想像與幻想的色彩。本文以生態女性主義的角度來檢視瑪格麗特•愛特伍的兩部反烏托邦作品—《末世男女》與《洪荒年代》，並依序由生育，情色，與食素三大主軸切入來討論身體在其文本中的再現。生態女性主義集結了生態主義與女性主義的學說，不僅對於自然以及女性在父權體制下所遭受的宰制有新穎的解讀，也提供了本文批判現代理性與科學主流的環境下，將身體視為可重複被拆解、被重組、被消費、被客製化等等，以期全然符合人類需求特性的立論依據。瑪格麗特•愛特伍的兩本反烏托邦作品中對於基因改造、情色文化、素食主義等的著墨演示了一種人類投射於肉體上的弔詭：一方面它體現了通往解放和烏托邦境界的潛能，另一方面它又受制裁與壓迫背後的極權主義和反烏托邦陰影的籠罩。

The body has been one of the most contested sites in the history of human existence. Literary portrayals of the body, especially in utopian settings, often break the yoke of biological constraints, transcend the confinement of rationality, and manifest all guises of imaginations and fantasies. This thesis approaches Margaret Atwood’s two dystopias—Oryx and Crake, and The Year of the Flood from an ecofeminist perspective, and examines the representation of the body as it pertains to the issue of reproduction, pornography, and vegetarianism. Drawing from ecologism and feminism in their discussion of the dual subordination of nature and women in the patriarchal structure of domination, ecofeminist discourse on the body makes room for the discussion of the precarious state of the body as physically collectable, controllable, consumable, and customizable. As embodiment becomes endlessly alterable for human ends, this thesis demonstrates how the representation of the bodies in Margaret Atwood’s two dystopias exemplify both the liberating and utopian potential, and the totalitarian dystopian mechanisms that lurk behind the system that sanctions oppression.