懸宕戰爭邊緣：維吉尼亞・吳爾芙《戴洛維夫人》中的陰性氣質與酷兒氣質作為一種癥候

Abstract

本篇論文探討維吉尼亞・吳爾芙如何在戰間期的現代主義脈絡中，重新建構並反思性別化的主體性。細讀《戴洛維夫人》，我將與雅各・拉岡關於「癥候」與「聖癥」的理論進行對話，特別聚焦於他那句極具挑釁性的論述：「女人是男人的癥候。」此一說法乍看之下將男性置於女性之上，強化了父權體制中的階層結構。斯拉沃熱・齊澤克卻提出了一種批判性的重新詮釋，根據齊澤克的理解，這一論述所凸顯的其實是男性主體性中某種結構性的匱乏，換言之，「女人作為癥候」所揭示的並非女性的劣勢，而是男性的不完整性。本論文採納齊澤克的觀點，進一步探討吳爾芙如何將賽普提默斯、克萊麗莎以及其他邊緣角色，描繪為象徵秩序中的癥候性擾動。透過這種描寫，吳爾芙揭示出一種抵抗象徵體系規訓的陰性與酷兒主體性形構的可能性。

論文第一章聚焦於吳爾芙對戰爭與國族主義的批判。作為一名女性，吳爾芙拒絕將國族視為象徵秩序中至高的陽具符號，她將國族主義視為父權體制最極端的展現，一種為了滿足征服與慾望而發動戰爭的權力機器，其結果是男性與女性皆在戰爭中被犧牲，依循此脈絡，我將探討戰爭作為象徵秩序的極致展演，反而顛覆並瓦解了該秩序本身。第二章分析吳爾芙對戰後倫敦的描寫，呈現出一種倒退至前伊底帕斯階段的社會狀態。在這個失序的社會景觀中，癥候從象徵秩序的裂縫中浮現，克萊麗莎與賽普提默斯在故事中以平行敘事的形式出現，暴露了父權社會無法涵納陰性與酷兒主體的結構性失敗。第三章則進一步探索如何以更流動且包容的形式重建社會秩序。在小說結尾，賽普提默斯的死訊傳至克萊麗莎的宴會現場，觸發了克萊麗莎的內省與轉化，透過對這一結尾場景的分析，我主張吳爾芙對癥候的認同揭示了一種倫理姿態——賽普提默斯的死亡不僅完成了克萊麗莎的覺醒歷程，更穿透了父權與國族主義共構的幻想，從而開啟了新主體性的想像空間。

This thesis investigates how Virginia Woolf reconfigures and reexamines gendered subjectivity during the interwar period of modernism. Through a close reading of Mrs. Dalloway, I engage with Jacques Lacan’s theory of symptom and sinthome, particularly his provocative claim that “woman as a symptom of man.” While this assertion appears to reinforce a patriarchal hierarchy in which men are positioned as superior to women, Slavoj Žižek offers a critical reinterpretation. According to Žižek, this formulation instead highlights a structural lack within male subjectivity. In other words, “woman as a symptom” reveals not the inferiority of women, but the incompleteness of men. Adopting Žižek’s perspective, this thesis explores how Woolf portrays figures such as Septimus and Clarissa—as well as other marginal characters—as symptomatic disruptions within the Symbolic order. In doing so, Woolf unveils alternative forms of femininity and queerness that resist symbolic containment.

Chapter one examines Woolf’s critique of war and nationalism. As a woman, Woolf refuses to recognize the nation as the supreme phallus of the Symbolic order. She denounces nationalism as the most extreme form of patriarchy, one that wages wars to satisfy its desire to conquer and dominate, sacrificing both men and women in the process. Drawing on this logic, I argue that war, as the extreme demonstration of the Symbolic order, paradoxically undermines and destroys the order itself. Chapter two analyzes Woolf’s depiction of post-war London as a return to a pre-Oedipal condition. In this disrupted social landscape, symptoms emerge from the fractures of the Symbolic. Clarissa and Septimus, functioning as parallel narrative threads, embody the symptoms of a patriarchal society’s failure to assimilate femininity and queerness. Chapter three further explores the possibility of reconstituting the social order through more fluid and inclusive forms. At the end of the story, the news of Septimus’s death reaches Clarissa’s party, triggering a moment of introspection and transformation. In the analysis of this ending part, I argue that Woolf’s identification with symptoms reveals an ethical gesture—Septimus’s death not only completes the process of Clarissa’s awakening but also traverses the fantasy sustained by patriarchy and nationalism, opening space for new subjectivities.