《魔戒》的異世界一瞥：（復）魅化與中間地帶

Abstract

本論文探討托爾金的《魔戒》達到的（復）魅化。長久以來，「異世界」都是重要的文化與文學想像。維多利亞時代人們對妖精的熱衷便反映了此傾向。然而，現代化帶來了一個除魅化的嶄新世界，強調啟蒙與理性，進而令妖精的魅力在十九世紀後期逐漸下降。來到托爾金寫作《魔戒》的二十世紀中期，妖精魅化的能力已不如過去那般強大。相對地，作為一部二十世紀中期的現代作品，《魔戒》重新喚起了讀者們對於「異世界」的想像，也因此能幫助我們更為深入探討魅化與除魅化在現代化過程中的矛盾。 本文檢視魅化、中間性、以及異世界三者間的細微互動。《魔戒》中的中土世界為一中間地帶，其中間性的具體化便是精靈。托爾金的精靈承繼了妖精的中間魅化者角色，並在《魔戒》中修復了妖精喪失的他者性。然而，中間性可能導致自相矛盾的困境。精靈們在《魔戒》的最後離開中土世界，讓他者性與同一性間的矛盾得到和解。本文主張透過魅化，我們可抵達一個現世與異世界交叉並存的中間地帶。《魔戒》作為奇幻文學與現代的魅化媒介，讓讀者得以一瞥異世界。

This thesis studies the (re-)enchantment of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. “Fairyland” is an important cultural and literary imagination. As one part of the mythical past, fairies occupied the Victorian imagination. Nonetheless, the Victorian fascination with fairies had gradually declined after the late nineteenth century. Modernization, traditionally characterized by Enlightenment and reason, led to a disenchanted twentieth-century world. When Tolkien wrote his famous trilogy in the mid-twentieth century, fairies and fairy-stories did not possess as much of their enchanting power as they did in the nineteenth century. The Lord of the Rings, which revives its readers’ imagination of the fairyland as a modern (re-)enchantment, thus illustrates our studying of the conflict between enchantment and disenchantment in the process of modernization. This thesis examines the subtle relation between enchantment, in-betweenness, and the otherworld. Middle-earth is a world between the self and the other, and its in-betweenness is embodied by the Elves. Their kinship with and difference from the fairies reveal the in-between nature of enchantment. Restoring their otherness, Tolkien’s Elves readopt the fairies’ role of the in-between enchanter. Nonetheless, the delicate balance between self-sameness and otherness is difficult to maintain. The Elves’ final departure from Middle-earth is hence a reconciliation of their possible paradox as the in-between enchanter. This thesis proposes that through enchantment, we could enter a temporary border zone where the reality and the otherworld intersect. As a fantasy fiction and a modern enchantment, The Lord of the Rings is its readers’ glimpse of the fairyland.