愉悅閱讀過程中的正面情緒─以臺灣女性閱讀BL作品所得之「療癒感」為例

Abstract

愉悅閱讀的價值在於閱讀行為本身，以及從中獲得的閱讀樂趣和正面情緒；療癒閱讀則旨在協助讀者紓緩負面情緒，回復恬淡安適的身心狀態。愉悅閱讀和療癒閱讀之間，其實具有某些共通之處；愉悅閱讀帶給讀者的正向體驗，同樣也具有紓解負面情緒的療癒效果。然而，現有文獻並未系統性地解析，在沒有特定情緒困擾的前提下，讀者透過愉悅閱讀偶然獲得療癒或紓緩效果的機制。因此，本研究以樂於分享經驗，且經常宣稱獲得一種特殊正面情緒「治癒感�療癒感」的BL社群為研究對象，探討「治癒�療癒感」的內涵、出現情境、情緒療癒機制與對讀者的意義。 本研究使用紮根理論研究法，共訪談了22位女性BL讀者。根據訪談資料，女性BL讀者的療癒感，可分為三大類，共有十種感受，分別是甜蜜感、溫馨感、因痛而生的快樂感、紓解感、撫慰感、圓滿感、歡樂感、愛憐感、陶醉感和溫暖感。而女性BL讀者的療癒感，則有四種發生情境，其一是文本特徵呼應讀者戀愛經驗，其次是文本特徵呼應讀者的生命經驗，第三種是文本特徵吻合讀者的感官偏好，第四種則是二次衍生創作延伸原作，並給予讀者更多閱讀樂趣。在女性BL讀者療癒感經驗中，其感受到的認同、淨化和領悟各有不同的樣態，認同可分為：性格認同、境遇認同、同理認同；淨化則有獲得正面能量、紓解負面情緒、正視過去傷口等三種樣態；而領悟則體現在愛情觀、自我情緒調適、自我認知以及對社會的反省等四個面向上。而BL閱讀的療癒感，對讀者的生活而言則有四大意義，其一是作為自我精神修復，其二是促使自己正視傷口，其三是作為經驗借鑑，其四是感受對自我生活的掌控。 由本研究的結果來看，BL閱讀的療癒感對讀者而言具有重要的意義，並擁有情緒療癒的效果。同時，BL讀者的療癒感經驗，則隱喻了讀者初始狀態的不圓滿，以及讀者藉閱讀自我療癒的積極意義。未來則可進一步探討不同文種帶給讀者的正面情緒體驗，以增進對愉悅閱讀和讀者情緒的認識。

This study explores how pleasure reading soothes readers in their daily lives. Pleasure reading is a non-goal oriented activity. Readers may not have possessed negative emotions when they are engaged in reading, and they do not necessarily read to cope with negativity. They read for enjoyment or for other positive emotion it may bring. Instead, healing reading is goal-directed; it aims to reduce readers’ negative emotions and helps the readers regain the peace of mind. Some female Boys’ Love (BL) readers claim that they are often “healed” and boosted by BL reading. This claim indicates commonality between pleasure reading and healing reading. However, few research has studied the healing effects of pleasure reading. As such, this study analyzes female BL reader’s perception of “healing” and explores the emotional healing efficacy generated from pleasure reading. Adopting a grounded theory approach, this study interviewed 22 female BL readers in Taiwan. The analysis showed that the “healing” perception of female BL readers can be differentiated into ten different sensations that are grouped into three main categories. The first category is the healing perceptions induced from the emotional expressions of a story; the sensation being sweetness, coziness, and happiness with pain. The second category is the healing perceptions induced from the textual features of a story; the sensations being relief, comfort, completion and satisfaction, amusement, and loveliness. The third category is the healing perceptions generated from the visual or auditory stimuli, encompassing the sensations of intoxication and warmth. There are four situations prompting the occurrence of “healing”. The first situation is that a story echoes a reader’s love experiences or her expectations for intimacy. The second situation is that a story echoes a reader’s life experiences beyond the intimate romantic relationships. The third is that a work fulfills a reader’s sensational preferences. The fourth situation is that a reader’s enjoyment is extended from reading a popular original work to reading BL derivative stories (fan-created stories based on a popular fiction). From the perspective of healing reading, this study also observed different patterns in the bibliotherapeutic processes of achieving at identification, catharsis, and insight. Identification effect occurred when readers empathize with the story characters’ personality, experiences, or perspectives. Catharsis effects included getting positive energy, relieving negative emotions, and facing the hurts from the past. Lastly, the insight generated from reading included a change of perspective toward the romantic relationship, self-adjustment in life, self-perception, and the reflection and new views about the society. The interviewees also claimed that the “healing” from BL reading is important in their daily lives. It calms them and helps boost the energy for facing the harsh of life, coping with the hurts from the past, learning life lessons vicariously from the fictional characters, and getting a sense of control of their lives. The findings show that BL reading does possess emotional healing efficacy toward certain BL readers. In addition, the experiences reported by the readers show that everyone lives an imperfect or dissatisfactory life in some aspects, and the self-healing via pleasure reading is an important way for the readers to cope with the stresses accumulated in daily lives. Future research may continue to explore the emotional experiences bring by different genres of texts so as to better understand the emotional healing efficacy of pleasure readings.