三部二十世紀後期愛爾蘭戲劇之墳墓場景中的身分認同政治

Abstract

墳墓是個生者與亡者共存的詭奇場域，並非所有墳墓場景中的角色都是鬼，但他們往往作為社會中的局外人或邊緣群體，而具有像鬼魂的特徵。當這些鬼魂似的角色展演一段回憶或指涉歷史事件，他們不僅是讓以前死去的人再次活了過來，也是將過去的歷史帶進當下的時空。墳墓場景中角色的鬼魂特質，讓歷史能被重新帶入故事的當下，並削弱規範生者的社會常規，在這個層面上，墓園可以從Michel Foucault和Jay Miskowiec對於異托邦（heterotopia）的理論來理解。作為一種偏差性異域（heterotopia of deviation），墓園容納了被社會邊緣化的生者，這些角色如鬼魂般生存於墓園中的特性，打亂了線性的時間，而揭露了被壓抑的過去、鬆動了看似穩固的現在。墳墓場景這個空間的特殊性，讓劇作家能在此背景設定中探討複雜的身分認同議題。 本文將透過文本分析，檢視三篇二十世紀後半的愛爾蘭戲劇作品中的墳墓場景，三篇文本分別是Brendan Behan的Richard’s Cork Leg，Frank McGuinness的Carthaginians、和Martin McDonagh的A Skull in Connemara。愛爾蘭劇場在二十世紀前期的興起，受到其國族政治的強烈影響，其後的發展也持續形塑了一種形成愛爾蘭國族意識的文化身分。愛爾蘭劇作家關注身分認同的議題，他們將劇場視為一種文化力量，可以形塑觀眾想像愛爾蘭人這個身分的方式。在墳墓場景中，生死狀態的不確定性創造了更多不受主流社會常規、歷史敘事所約束的空間，來探討角色的身分認同，以及身分認同政治如何在愛爾蘭社會的脈絡下運作。本篇論文將探討在國族、宗教、性向等面向上，這三部劇本如何使用墳墓場景來探索、批判和重新想像愛爾蘭的身分認同。本篇論文更廣大的關懷是國族和性別論述之間在戲劇中的辯證，以及愛爾蘭人如何在其中試著與自己的歷史及身分認同達成和解。

The graveyard is a peculiar place where the living and the dead co-exist. Not all characters in the graveyard scenes are ghosts, but they embody ghostly features as outsiders and marginalized groups in society. When the ghostly characters play out a piece of memory or refer to historical events, not only is the dead brought to life, the past is also brought back to the present. Graveyard scenes enable characters to bring history to the present and undermine social norms that regulate the living. In this sense, the graveyard can be interpreted by Michel Foucault and Jay Miskowiec’s theory of the heterotopias. As a heterotopia of deviation, the graveyard accommodates people marginalized in society, and these characters’ ghostliness disturbs the linear time to reveal the repressed past and de-stabilize the present. This feature of graveyards makes it an interesting setting for playwrights to accommodate complex identity politics. This thesis will provide close-reading of the graveyard scenes in three Irish plays written in 20th century: Brendan Behan’s Richard’s Cork Leg, Frank McGuinness’s Carthaginians, and Martin McDonagh’s A Skull in Connemara. The rise of Irish theatre in the early twenties was significantly influenced by its nationalist politics, and its development continues to shape a cultural identity which leads to nation formation. Irish playwrights are concerned with identification, seeing theatre as a cultural force that shapes the way their audience imagine what being an Irish means. In the graveyard scenes, with life and death unclear, there emerges more space to ponder on the characters’ identities and how the identity politics works in the context of Irish society. This thesis inquires how the three plays use the graveyard scenes to explore, criticize, and re-imagine Irish identity in terms of nationality, religion and sexuality. The broader concern of this thesis is the dialectic between nationality and sexuality in dramas, with which Irish people struggle to reconcile with their history and identities.