瑪格麗特‧愛特伍(Margaret Atwood, 1939-)的第三本小說《女祭司》(Lady Oracle)深刻描寫女性因為反覆經歷自我意識與父權文化下的女性刻板印象之間的內在衝突，而產生的矛盾主體性。女主角瓊(Joan)不只因為她肥胖的身材，而苦於矛盾的自我意識，游移在認同自己的身體或是力求符合母親的期望。另一方面，儘管在瘦身成功和建立新的身份之後，瓊仍困於矛盾混亂的身分認同裡，不論是面對現實生活中她所扮演的多重女性角色或是矛盾的投射於自己所創造的虛構角色。在這篇論文中，我從文化藝術創作的角度與精神分析的觀點去探索瓊的心理矛盾與恐懼。明確地說，我主要從三個層面來分析瓊的矛盾主體性的發展：從她的童年時期到成年時期；從她在家庭背景中與母親的矛盾關係到社會領域中與男性矛盾的戀愛關係；從她在現實生活中扮演的多重身份到她在虛構世界裡對角色的矛盾自我投射。

依據克莉絲多娃(Julia Kristeva, 1941-)的主體性理論，特別是她的賤斥(abjection)理論，此論文闡述瓊的主體性之所以矛盾是因為她無法完全與母親分割。儘管她以為她已與其母分割，實際上卻不是如此，她仍然不斷地受到其他人如同“雙親”般的影響。藉由寫作猶如逃避現實生活般，瓊不斷地創造多重身份與自我分裂的虛構角色，她的主體性也隨著變得更加複雜。然而，瓊的小說創作最後卻引領她重整了混亂的自我。

本論文之引論將《女祭司》放置於愛特伍的前三本小說脈絡中，並且解釋愛特伍的早期小說與矛盾的女性主體性的關係。第一章引用克莉絲多娃的賤斥理論和“在過程中的主體”(subject-in-process)說明造成瓊的矛盾主體性的原因。她的主體因為與母親的不完整分割，而不斷的渴求母親與原本的肥胖自我，且同時矛盾地渴求父親與社會化。第二章引用克莉絲多娃的理論概念：認同想像父親(the Imaginary Father)的失敗與選擇愛戀對象(the choice of the love object)的失敗，來解釋瓊與父親的不確定關係，甚至延伸到她的矛盾情感糾結：渴望卻又害怕男人的愛，和她自相矛盾地認同且否認自己的女性社會角色。除此之外，我說明瓊如何透過寫歌德式小說(Gothic romances)的過程重整她的矛盾自我，包含她在現實生活中所創造的多重身份以及虛構故事中自我分裂而成的角色人物。本論文之結論除了再闡述瓊是如何透過寫作從混亂矛盾的自我認同發展成完整的自我，我也針對模稜兩可的故事結尾推測了幾個可能性。並且將瓊的矛盾主體性延伸到現今社會的身體形象(body image)的議題、混淆的減肥動機與對婚姻的猶豫。

Margaret Atwood’s third novel, Lady Oracle, depicts ambivalence of female subjectivity caused by repetitious inner conflicts between self-awareness and feminine stereotypes imposed by patriarchal culture. The protagonist, Joan, is anguished not only about her incoherent self-identification with her obese body and her mother, but also about her chaotic identities after constructing her “new” selves by losing weight and putting on different masks of female roles in both her real life and her fictional world. In this thesis, I explain and analyze Joan’s psychic ambivalences and fears from both cultural-artistic and psychoanalytic perspectives. Specifically, I examine her development of ambivalent subjectivity from her childhood to her adulthood, from her contradictory mother-daughter relationship in domestic field to her uncertain amatory relationships in social field, and from her enactment of multiple identities in her real life to her shifting self-projections upon characters in her fictional world.

Based on Kristeva’s theory of subjectivity, and especially her notion of abjection, this thesis argues that Joan’s subjectivity is ambiguous because she cannot separate herself completely from her mother, and, as she thought she did, she continues to stay open to the other “parents’” influences. Joan’s subjectivity becomes more complicated by creating multiple “selves” and self-split characters through her writing as escape fiction; however, her creation of writing ultimately leads her to reorganize her chaotic self.

In the introduction, I position Lady Oracle in the context of Atwood’s previous three novels and explicate how Atwood’s early novels relate to the issue of ambivalent female subjectivity. The first chapter draws on Kristeva’s notion of abjection and subject-in-process to explain how Joan’s subjectivity is always ambivalent. Her subject, because of the incomplete separation from the mother, desires for the mother and her “original” fat self and simultaneously for the father and socialization. The second chapter, based on Kristeva’s concepts of failure in identification with the Imaginary Father and the choice of the love object, deals with Joan’s uncertain relationship with her father, which expands to her contradictory emotional entanglement: both desire for and fears of men’s love, and her paradoxical identification and deprecation of social roles of femininity. Moreover, I expound how Joan reorganizes her ambivalent self-identifications in both her creation of multiple identities and self-split fictional characters through the process of writing Gothic romances. In the conclusion, in addition to demonstrating how Joan develops from a chaotic self with ambivalent self-perceptions to an integrated self through the process of writing, I presume possibilities of the ambiguous ending after the novel. Besides, I extend Joan’s ambivalent female subjectivity to the issue of body image, confusing motivation of weight loss and hesitation of getting married in society nowadays.

Introduction—1

Chapter One Ambivalence and Anxiety: Permeable Division between Mother and Daughter, Past and Present—20
A. Kristeva’s View of the Subject in Process—21
B. Ambivalence of Joan as an Abject—25
C. Abjection of the Mother to Enter the Symbolic Order—34
D. Abjection, Incomplete Separation—37

Chapter Two Fear and Fiction: Deprecation and Confirmation of Female Body and Integration of Self in the Process of Writing—56
A. Ambivalent Subjectivity between “Original” Self and Gender Roles of Femininity—57
B. Ambivalent Emotions toward Men and Lovers—62
C. Joan’s Subjectivity and Her Choices of Love Objects—64
D. Ambivalence between Desire for and Fears of Men’s Love—76
E. Fiction Writing: Functions of Writing Gothic Romances—90

Conclusion—104

Works Cited—110

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