一切從腿開始:從精神分析閱讀《白鯨記》中的義肢技藝

Abstract

本論文旨在從廿一世紀文學理論的角度來重讀赫爾曼．梅爾維爾的《白鯨記》。在這本豐富的著作中，亞哈船長的義肢成為我們有效地解讀許多交錯的面向的重要關鍵。從技義理論來探討，義肢的概念向我們揭示了自然和人造並無不同，技藝也並非發源於現代，而是發源於人類出現之時。義肢指出這樣一個事實：無論我們的思維或身體都總是進行著人造繁衍的過程。義肢因此是一個讓我們重新理解身與心的討論的重要觀念，因為它象徵著生命的動能，讓我們看見生命的生生不息。而在使用技藝理論的同時，拉岡的精神分析理論有效地提供給我們分析亞哈船長歧異的心理狀態的思想架構。許多圍繞著小說中所描寫的亞哈的精神病的問題，尚有待探究。這些問題主要關於為何和如何其他船員們基於他的身體殘缺而不公平地對待他。

This thesis aims to re-read Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick from the point of view of twenty-first-century literary theory. In this comprehensive work, the prosthetic leg of Captain Ahab serves as an important pivot from which one can efficaciously see the interlacement of various facets. Grounded upon the theory of technics, the concept of prosthesis reveals to us how nature is barely different from artifacts, and that technics originates not in modern time, but much earlier when humans come into being. The notion of prosthesis points out a fact—that whether it be our mind or body, it is always undergoing artificial processes of multiplication. Prosthesis is a significant notion which will shed light on our discussion of mind and body respectively, since it epitomizes the dynamo of life, one which keeps on transforming. Beyond a reading of technicity, Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory is useful in providing us with a skeleton to look into the peculiar psychic state illustrated by Captain Ahab. Several questions constellating around Ahab’s disability that is depicted in the novel should also be investigated. They include how and why others treat him unfairly due to the prosthetic leg he carries.