歐康納筆下母子關係中的戀屍傾向

Abstract

歐康納筆下的世界充滿了母子間的衝突，這類衝突往往導致不幸事件、意外損失，甚至是突發的死亡。彼此依賴的家庭成員間存在著互相毀滅的傾向，顯示出對死亡的迷戀和嚮往──死亡是人生難以忍受苦難的最終解脫。 美國南方特有的淑女典範，造就這些母親們慈悲呵護的表象，他們看似無條件的關愛，實際上來自於對宰制和自我滿足的渴望。母親一門心思著迷於孩子的疾病、失敗和晦暗的未來，無形中扼殺了下一代成長與成功的可能性。對於美好過去的想像、宰制他人生活的力量和物質上的佔有給予他們暫時的穩定和安全感，這些具有戀屍傾向的母親們以美好過往和內疚詭計剝奪孩子的獨立和自主性。 受到來自母親的愛、保護和對死亡迷戀的影響，歐康納筆下的成年子女對生活中的改變和機會變得無感，他們既仰賴母親的關愛過活，卻同時對這般依賴感到恐懼。在具有戀屍傾向的母親呵護之下，這些成年子女通常體患頑疾、情商不佳且孤立無友。當母親施展內疚詭計讓人無所適從時，這些子女往往尋求補償式暴力作為自我防衛的手段。 運用弗洛姆對戀屍癖和母體依存的解析，本論文旨在探討歐康納筆下母親角色的戀屍特質，以及他們的孩子生活在死亡陰影下所產生的愛懼情節。

Flannery O’Connor’s literary world is filled with conflicts between mothers and their children which usually end up with unfortunate incidents, unexpected loss or violent death. The mutual destructiveness of these interdependent family members indicated attraction to and longing for death, a state of ultimate certainty which ends the unbearable human sufferings. Applying Erich Fromm’s analysis of necrophilia and mother fixation, this paper is set to survey the necrophilious traits of mother figures and the love-fear complex of their children derived from the shadow of death in O’Connor’s short stories. Suppressed by the mottos of southern womanhood, the mothers appear to be more than caring and loving for their children. However, the underlying motivation for their unconditional love is often desire for the power to control and self-satisfaction. Obsessed with their children’s illness, failure and unfavorable development, these mothers strangled the younger generation’s potential for growth, success and real joy. Fantasies of the glorious past, power to dominate and possession of material things provide a simulative certainty when physical death is too much to ask. With the suffocating power of love, these necrophilious mothers O’Connor portrayed use the allure of the past and manipulative “guilt-trick” to render their children powerless and dependent. Diminished by the mothers’ love and protection as well as death-obsessed nature, their adult offspring become insensitive to changes and opportunities in life, leading their lives in need and in fear of the mothers’ love and protection. Under the influence of their necrophilious life-givers, these children are often physically unhealthy, emotionally alienated and socially isolated. Entrapped by their dependence on their mothers and often tested by their care-givers’ guilt-trick, these children seek violence as a self-defensive mechanism. In this paper, Fromm’s notions of necrophilia and mother fixation are applied to explore the love-hate relationship between a necrophilious mother and her daughter in “Good Country People”, the death-seeking wish fulfillment of a nostalgic motherly figure in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, the violent competition between sibling-like children for the love and attention of a disaster-loving mother in “The Comforts of Home”, the struggle to matter in the strange present of a pair of past-fixated mother and son in “Everything That Rises Must Converge” and the extended shadow of death within the alternative mother-son stories from “The Geranium” to “Judgement Day”. Writing in the era of shattered faith in God and in life, O’Connor depicts the necrophilious orientation among characters lacking the power to shield against the sense of uncertainty as the world changes. The violence they partake, however, is a paradoxical proof of their love of death as well as their desire to confront the enervating struggle for life.