臺灣博碩士論文加值系統

阿蘭達蒂˙洛伊的小說《微物之神》呈現一個錯綜複雜的創傷故事。洛伊藉由創傷敘述描寫小說主角雙胞胎不斷重新經歷並回想起他們所遺失的過去，在雙胞胎的創傷經驗中交織出一個「一體-分離-一體」的脈絡。在這樣的創傷脈絡之中，有兩個重要的時間點為此脈絡帶來轉折性的改變，第一個時間點是艾斯沙的返回，也就是他的離開；第二個時間點是長大後的雙胞胎重返他們離開的原點，這個原點便是當初年幼的雙胞胎開始承受因各個暴力事件匯集而成的創傷。艾斯沙的離開迫使年幼的雙胞胎承受極巨大的傷痛，因為艾斯沙的離開暴力地拆散年幼的雙胞胎和他們僅可依賴的母親，也拆散這三者共構的一體，同時，這樣的返回使視彼此為一體的雙胞胎必須瓦解，而失去一部份的自我。在毫無準備的情況下，年幼的雙胞胎對於突如其來的分離無法理解，也錯誤解讀分離的始末，因此在他們的成長過程之中，始終無法觸及這些暴力事件和創傷本身，更遑論創傷所帶來的創傷症候群。然而，洛伊的小說中，艾斯沙的重返伴隨著拉海爾的返回，呈現創傷使其受創主體重新面臨過去與現在的拉扯，讓雙胞胎再次回到被壓抑已久的過去，儘管他們試圖遺忘或壓抑過去的創傷記憶，逐漸掏空自己對於創傷事件的認知，這樣的重返迫使他們游移過去和現在之中，藉由熟悉的面孔和相似的創傷故事重拾記憶的碎片，再度摸索記憶中遙不可及或不可告人的傷痛。本文第一章透過凱西˙卡露絲(Cathy Caruth) 探討「離開 (departure)」造成創傷的角度，檢視艾斯沙的離開如何形成創傷和其不可理解性，以及他們如何在這樣的創傷之中倖存。第二章藉由多明尼克˙拉卡頗 (Dominick LaCapra)在創傷理論中所提出的兩種面對創傷的策略—演現 (acting out)和演透 (working through) —耙梳艾斯沙的重返、拉海爾的返回以及這本小說極具爭議的雙重結局，探討這兩個策略在小說之中如何相互抗衡，以及雙胞胎所承受的歷史性創傷和結構性創傷的糾結，使雙胞胎懸宕在過去與現在之中。本文最後一部份著重於探討雙胞胎重返他們的創傷之地後，在觀賞印度傳統戲劇舞蹈表演時，藉由拉卡頗所謂的「移情的不安定性(empathetic unsettlement)」見證了他者與自我的創傷，為重返的雙胞胎重新開啟一個見證自身創傷的歷程，並使他們得以哀悼因創傷所失去的記憶。

Arundhati Roy’s debut novel, The God of Small Things, tells a complicated story about trauma. As a trauma narrative, Roy’s novel focuses on the twins’ re-experiences and remembrance of their past in the present moment, thereby exposing a pattern of “Oneness-Separation-Oneness” in the twins’ stalled development. The crucial points of the twins’ traumatic experience are Estha’s Re-turn, or departure, and the twins’ Re-return to where they leave, the site of their original trauma. Estha’s departure forces the twins to register the force of the trauma; that is, their forced separation from their mother, Ammu, and the disruption of their imaginary oneness as twins. While it seems the twins are incapable of comprehending the significance and impacts of the traumatic accident, Estha’s Re-return, along with Rahel’s Return, “returns” the twins to a past that they try, in vain, to forget, even though its haunting impacts still elude their comprehension. This thesis proposes to zoom in on those fleeting moments when the adult twins are reminded by the presence of each other the fragmented memories of a past too painful for them to remember, moments when they begin both to confront the enigma of their trauma and to bear witness to a past that they have unwittingly repeated as they seek to return and reclaim the oneness they thought they have lost. In Chapter one, I draw upon Cathy Caruth’s notion of “departure” as both trauma and survival and read Estha’s departure, the turning point of the twins’ trauma experience in the past, as the traumatic moment when they register the vehement force of their trauma on the one hand, and on the other hand learn to survive by inflicting punishment on themselves, thereby bidding farewell to life as they knew it. Chapter Two, accordingly, delves into Estha’s Re-return and Rahel’s return, the turning point for the grown-up twins in the present, by discussing the twins’ sufferings of both historical trauma and structural trauma and by conducting a contrapuntal reading of the controversial dual ending of the novel. This chapter analyzes the entangled processes of acting out and working through, which are two strategies proposed by Dominick LaCapra in his trauma study. Chapter three argues that the twins
unwittingly undergo an “empathetic unsettlement,” as LaCapra names the ethical response the audience may have in bearing witness to trauma, when the twins are watching the performance of Kathakali. Their experience of watching the performance plunges them into a process of witnessing and mourning for their own trauma.

I.Introduction………………………………………………………………1
II. Chapter One
Departure as Trauma………………………………………………………14
III. Chapter Two
Trauma Suspended and Re-turned………………………………………40
IV. Chapter Tree
Theatric Performance as Witnessing…………………………………69
V. Conclusion………………………………………………………………91
VI. Works Cited……………………………………………………95

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