當代女性散文人貓關係書寫研究

Abstract

本文針對當代女性散文，尤其是1980年代以降的作品中，人貓關係表現形式進行研究。檢視文本所呈現樣貌，當代人與貓之間關係顯然已有所變遷，人們不再只將貓作為單純的捕鼠工具或賞玩的寵物，而更多是將之視為家人或生命伴侶，而這影響了人貓之間連結的外在表現形式。 當前學者多從動物書寫、動物權利或動物倫理學的角度分析相關文本，因此討論重點置於反思文本作者有意或無意地將動物物化，以及檢視作者的生態意識。儘管如此，就其中的「貓」主題書寫而言，猶有不少議題值得以不同角度進行探究。例如文本呈現當代人以具體行為展示其對於貓親暱深沉的情感，此中即體現人貓關係的轉變，還可從心理學、社會學的角度分析人們何以將貓視同家人和寄託，以及人們如何經由新的方式與貓建立關係，包含：擔任貓志工，將浪貓關懷實踐為TNR（捕捉、結紮、放回）、廣泛收集與貓相關的周邊產品，甚至是貓的鬍鬚、氣味等如何導致針對貓之戀物，皆仍具可深入探討之空間。 因此，本文依據外在表現形式差異，分為「同伴動物書寫」、「愛物收藏書寫」和「浪貓關懷書寫」等主要三類，並於第二章至第四章詳細論述。 本文第一章為緒論，闡述研究動機，對相關文獻進行綜述，並訂定研究範圍和研究方法、簡述進行文本分析時將參酌之理論。 第二章探討當代女性散文中關於人貓之間雙向互動的敘述和情感描繪、針對人貓之間的依附連結如何形成，以及此如何展示當代人與作為同伴動物之貓的關係趨向類親子化。 第三章自社會學的迷文化角度和心理學戀物理論，分析人對於與貓相關之事物所具之迷戀和成癮，以及它如何構成一種表現為「貓收藏」的嶄新關係。 第四章從關懷倫理學的角度出發，探討當代女性散文中關於浪貓生命安置與照護，尤其是TNR行動的敘述，以及此中「關懷」如何使「人—貓」關係擴及為「人—貓群—人」的關係。除此之外，本章也說明擬人筆法在這類書寫中發揮的效果。 第五章為結論。

This dissertation investigates manifestation of human-cat relationship in contemporary women’s prose especially works after 1980s. I argue that the relationship between human and cats has changed recently through literary texts: people no longer treat cats as just mousetraps or pets, but consider them as family or companions, and this influences the external form of connection between people and cats. Some scholars have analyzed related texts from the perspective of animal writing, animal rights or bioethics, focusing on introspecting the author’s objectification of animals intentionally or unintentionally, as well as the author’s ecological consciousness. Nevertheless, ongoing concerns remain: how specific behavior through which people express their passionate feelings to cats manifest the change of the relationship, why people regard cats as family and sustenance from psychological and sociological perspectives, and how people establish bonds with cats via new ways involving volunteering for life settlement and care like TNR(Trap-Neuter-Return), how collecting cat merchandise or even the whiskers, odors of cats lead to a kind of fetishism, and there’s still room for further discussion. Thus, this paper is divided into three main categories such as “companion animal writing,” “collection writing,” and “stray cat care writing” according to the differences in external manifestations, which are discussed in detail in Chapter two to Chapter four. Chapter one is the introduction and it illustrates the research motive, scope, methodology, and literature survey. Chapter two explores the narration of specific two-way interaction and the description of feelings between people and cats, how does the attachment between human and cat form, and how it demonstrates the change of relationship between human and cats as companion animal becomes close to parent and child in contemporary women’s prose. Chapter three examines the fetishism and addiction to cat-related things from sociological and psychological perspectives such as fan culture and fetishism theory, and how it forms a new type of relationship which shows as “colleting cats.” Chapter four discusses the statement about life settlement and care for stray cats like TNR from Ethics of Care theory, and how does the “care” makes the human-cat relationship extend to human-cat-human relationship. In addition, this chapter also explains the effect of anthropomorphic writing in this kind of writing. Chapter five is conclusion.