「殘跡使凹痕處增光」：馬克．多蒂的複寫詩學

Abstract

本論文以批評家Sarah Dillon及Michael Davidson所提出的羊皮紙複寫的概念來閱讀美國當代詩人馬克．多蒂的詩作。多蒂的文本中經常出現互文及跨領域的指涉，他大量引用或改寫其他藝術、音樂與文學作品，因此，解讀他的作品勢必需要適當地詮釋其中縝密堆疊之文本。本論文將探究他所引用文本之來源，討論原文之意義如何像羊皮紙文本一般被刮除，並進一步探究多重交織的文本與多蒂詩作之間可能存在的縫隙，同時，亦將分析多蒂如何改寫並賦予這些層疊的互文，能像羊皮紙上複寫的新舊文本般產生新的意義。論文的三個章節深入檢視多蒂自稱為「熱點」（hot links）的互文連結所產生的複寫詩學。第一章討論《My Alexandria》詩集中第一首作品〈Demolition〉並檢視詩人如何透過詩人王爾德（Oscar Wilde）、羅伯特．羅威爾（Robert Lowell）、美國第一位帶領黑人部隊的Robert Gould Shaw上校，以及彫塑家Augustus Saint-Gaudens等多元文本的片段，檢視愛滋病對同志社群造成的影響。第二章檢視《Atlantis》詩集倒數第二首作品〈Nocturne in Black and Gold〉一詩中的互文，包括聖奧古斯丁（Saint Augustine de Hippo）的《懺悔錄》（Confessions）、惠斯勒（James McNeill Whistler）的畫作、濟慈（John Keats）的書信及莫札特（Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart）歌劇《魔笛》（Die Zauberflöte）中的夜后之歌，並討論這些斷簡殘篇可能產生的療癒效果。第三章討論《School of the Arts》詩集中的〈Notebook/To Lucian Freud/On the Veil〉，分析文本中透過多重互文及呈現的後愛滋時期身體觀。由於前兩首詩作均創作於愛滋病蔓延的高峰，因此論文前兩章也將回顧愛滋病發展的社會及文化意涵，第三章則分析後愛滋期的作品中呈現的創傷。

In this study the poetic works of Mark Doty are examined using the theoretical methodology of “palimpsestuous reading” proposed by Sarah Dillon and the concept of “palimtext” by Michael Davidson. Doty’s poems make extensive intertextual and interdisciplinary references to art, music and works of other poets and writers; therefore his works cannot be properly interpreted without investigating the intricate layering. In this dissertation, I try to return to the originary texts and explore how their established meanings can be erased like the previous text of a palimpsest, and then investigate the gaps existing between the various superimposing and superimposed texts. Equally important, I relate the palimpsested poetic texts and analyze the new meanings that Doty re-inscribes for both the originary text and his own poems. Each chapter focuses on a close reading of one poem with special attention to what Doty himself called “hot links” in his works. The first chapter discusses “Demolition” from My Alexandria and how through the intertextual references made to Oscar Wilde, Robert Lowell, Robert Gould Shaw and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Doty re-accesses the history of the depleting gay community at the height of AIDS epidemic. In the second chapter on “Nocturne in Black and Gold” from Atlantis, I unpack the array of allusions, including the epigraph from Saint Augustine of Hippo, the title from James McNeill Whistler and the references to Keats’s letter and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and argue how these literary and artistic fragments serve as unguent for healing. Third chapter on “Notebook/To Lucian Freud/On the Veil” from School of the Arts addresses the corporality of the body traumatized by AIDS. As both “Demolition” and “Nocturne in Black and Gold” were written when the then incurable AIDS was ravaging in US, I contextualize the social-cultural meanings of the disease and how they are implicated into Doty’s poems. In the third chapter, I argue that Doty’s poetry published in the post-AIDS era cannot escape the self, which has been traumatized by the modern plague.