東西溢流：《曼德維爾遊記》中的凝視、物件及身體

Abstract

本論文透過檢視十四世紀旅行文本《曼德維爾遊記》中的物件、人之身體與非人物體的遭遇和接觸，以及視覺的能動性及威脅，探討並開拓曼德維爾敘事中東西關係的詮釋。在《曼德維爾遊記》中，第一人稱的敘事者帶領讀者前往耶路撒冷、聖地周邊的朝聖景點，以及異域的各種奇境。他的旅程鋪展出萬花筒般多彩豐富的光景，既喚起讀者對於遠東的好奇，亦是一場視覺慾望的展演。然而，即便敘事本身以一名基督教騎士的視角，帶出西方拉丁世界對於東方異域及各種豐饒物件的「凝視」，文本中所透露的，卻不單單是單一視角的觀看，而是我他之間雙向、甚至多方的凝視。本研究從物質導向的觀點、拉岡精神分析中將凝視視為小對體的解釋，以及中世紀視覺理論等方向取徑，來檢視曼德維爾敘事中引人注目又耐人尋味的各種物件，並思考這些物件的介入，如何重新形塑敘事中的我他關係。論文第一章透過《曼德維爾遊記》中幾乎無所不在的珍貴寶石，來探討自我的觀看、他者的眼睛，以及物件的詭異凝視這三者之間，是如何相互作用和呼應。第二章以《曼德維爾遊記》及其他相關文本中呈現的複雜視覺網絡，審視物件的中介性和不定性，以及視覺與身體的糾纏。第三章則聚焦在《曼德維爾遊記》中兩種與身體有關的描寫，分別是基督教聖物的轉移／轉譯，以及異族部落的食人習俗，來分析身體作為視覺物件，如何動搖地理、文化和宗教的疆界，並呈現看似對立的東西文化之間相互映射的可能。即便各章節有不同的側重，其最終都回歸到對於東西關係的再思。本研究試圖從對《曼德維爾遊記》中不同物件的分析，來強調西方與東方的關係並非單單由人類主體的互動所決定，亦因為物件的調停與干預，開展出不同的可能。本研究以《曼德維爾遊記》為主軸，並納入《玫瑰傳奇》、《珍珠》、聖凱瑟琳傳記及其他聖徒神蹟等文本，透過爬梳文學作品中的視覺物件及不同文本間的互文，以理解曼德維爾敘事中的視覺物／對體，如何挑戰既有的我他二元，並形構出一個更加不穩定、同時也更加開放的全新主體。本文最終試圖從這種開放性，解釋曼德維爾筆下「未實現」的環繞世界之旅可能代表的意義。

This dissertation probes into the East-West relationship in the fourteenth-century Travels of Sir John Mandeville by addressing the presence of objects, the physical encounters between human and non-human bodies, and the potentials and problems of sight. Manifesting the desire for seeing, the Travels presents a kaleidoscopic world full of spiritual, physical, and visual wonders by having its first-person protagonist travel to Jerusalem, other sacred sites around the holy city, and amazing places far beyond. Although the narrative discloses the exotic world and abundant material objects through the perspective of a Christian knight, the “gaze” shown in the text is not a unidirectional viewing from the Latin West but a bidirectional, or even multidirectional, gaze that splits between self and other. This study appropriates the material-oriented perspective, Jacques Lacan’s idea of the gaze as objet petit a, and medieval visual theories to scrutinize the conspicuous yet intriguing objects in Mandeville’s narrative and investigate how the intervention of objects reshapes the self-other relationship. The first chapter features the omnipresent gemstones in the Travels to investigate the interplay between the vision of self, the eyes of others, and the existence of objects as the uncanny gaze. The second chapter explores the mediality of things and the entanglement of sight and body by looking into the complicated visual networks in Mandeville’s account and other late medieval texts. The third chapter addresses the translatio of Christian relics and the portrayal of cannibalistic scenes to analyze how bodies as visual objects unsettle physical, cultural, and religious boundaries and create space for mutual reflection. These different chapters will be layered together to produce an integrated description of the East-West relationship, which is not only determined by the encounters between human subjects but also shaped by the mediation and intervention of things. With the examination of various material objects in the Travels and related works, including Le Roman de la Rose, Pearl, the legend of St. Katherine, and the miracles of Christian saints, this dissertation endeavors to tease out how the gaze-objects in Mandeville’s narrative challenge the traditional subject-object relation and configure a new kind of subject that can never be settled and closed, which echoes Mandeville’s portrayal of the travel as an “imperfect” circumnavigation of the earth.