本論文以一女性歷史後設小說的角度來閱讀瑪格麗特‧愛特伍德(Margaret Atwood)的小說《盲眼刺客》(The Blind Assassin)。小說中的女主角艾莉絲(Iris)藉由重建自己的歷史以重拾自我、建立一女性社群。她的論述與大眾論述相抗衡，尤其與官方歷史書寫形成對比。此研究立論於琳達‧胡瓊(Linda Hutcheon)對歷史後設小說的定義以及詮釋，並結合後現代女性主義的觀點，進而闡述主要的論點：艾莉絲的個人歷史具有多重文本的特性，表面看起來似乎是由不同敘述者在其中建構故事，但所有的故事總體的看，其實是一部女性生活在資本主義和父權社會中的歷史，並且從女性的角度呈現資本主義對女性的剝削。

內文主要有兩個章節，加上導論與結語。導論除了說明研究動機，還呈現論文的主要觀點以及架構：第一章旨在說明寫作與艾莉絲成長的關係，著重於個人成長的部分；第二章將艾莉絲的個人歷史放到整個歷史的脈絡上，建構一套女性資本主義的歷史，展現出作者的歷史知識。第一章將艾莉絲的生平分成三個階段討論。第一階段探討年幼的艾莉絲如何從扮演她母親角色的人物中吸收與內化自我否定的人格特質，此一階段持續至她與理查(Richard)結婚為止。第二個階段開始於艾莉絲早期的寫作，此時她開始處理內心的慾望，面對長期以來受壓抑的另一個自我。最後一個階段從她的妹妹蘿拉(Laura)死亡開始，艾莉絲意識到她對他人苦難的盲目與忽視，於是開始自己獨立的生活。在書寫個人歷史的同時，艾莉絲的個人歷史和官方論述成為一對照，展現出女性走出父權體系與官方論述束縛的生活形態。第二章分別比較與對照小說中其他敘述者的故事，闡述其共同的用意：刻畫一部女性在父權社會和資本主義社會中遭受剝削與物化的歷史。每段故事以戰爭與盲眼刺客為母題互相呼應，以女性的觀點刻畫一部資本主義的歷史。藉由女主角艾莉絲的敘述來闡明資本主義在社會中操控與運作，並以年邁艾莉絲的生活態度作為示範，展現出另一種不受資主主義控制的生活型態。結論中除了重申主要論點之外，還提出其他關於『盲眼刺客』的解讀，以及對於年邁艾莉絲的生活的詮釋。

This thesis examines how Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Blind Assassin, is a feminist historiographic metafiction in which Iris, the protagonist, achieves self-assertion and builds female bonding, and how it serves as a resistance to public discourse, especially in terms of the official history-writing. Based on Linda Hutcheon’s definition and discussion of the genre, historiographic metafiction, and combined with it a postmodern feminist point of view, this thesis argues that Iris’s personal history is one with multiple texts that forms a collective history of women’s lives in a capitalist and patriarchal society and presents a feminist commentary on the capitalist exploitation of women.
This thesis is divided into two chapters with an introduction, and a conclusion. Besides explaining my motivation in choosing The Blind Assassin as the only text to be analyzed, the introduction presents the main argument and the basic thesis structure—the first chapter focuses on writing as personal accomplishment for Iris; the second chapter puts Iris’s personal history in the context of significant historical moments to show Iris’s or the author’s historical knowledge in constructing a feminist capitalist history. The first chapter discusses Iris’s life in three stages. The first stage is about the forming of her self-denial characteristic learning from her mother figures till her marriage with Richard. The second stage begins with her earlier writings in which she starts to deal with her own desire, the inner self she used to repress. After the death of her sister, Laura, Iris recognizes her “blindness” to others’ sufferings and then starts to live a life independently which marks the beginning of the third stage. By reconstructing her personal history, Iris also challenges the public discourse by showing other women the possibilities of living outside the patriarchal power structure and the refrains of any official discourse. The second chapter explores all narratives in the novel respectively and comparatively in terms of their collective function in revealing a history of exploitation of women in the patriarchal and capitalist society. With connecting motifs, wars and the blind assassin, those narratives form a history of capitalism from a woman’s perspective. Atwood has her protagonist, Iris, reveal how a capitalist system works in a society and manifest another possibility out of capitalist control in aging Iris’s daily life. Other than summarizing the main points, the conclusion ends with more about the meaning of the term “the blind assassin” and the life of the old Iris.

Contents

Introduction 1
Chapter One Writing as Self-Assertion and Resistance to Official Discourse 16
(I) Writing as a Way to Understand Feminine Self Denial 19
(II) Writing as an Escape, Self-Fulfillment, and Recording Growth 29
(III) Resistance to Official Discourse 36

Chapter Two Alternative Feminist Historiography of Capitalism 44
(I) Feminist Alternative History and Connecting Motifs— 47
The Blind Assassin and Wars
(II) The Critique of Capitalism in Each Narrative 53


Conclusion 73

Works Cited 84

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