“We Will Never be like Them:”

Intersections at Abjection and Fetishism

        「我們不會跟他們一樣」︰戀物與賤斥的臨界點

議程網站:

http://www.pcpm.nccu.edu.tw/data/981127.pdf

中英文摘要

以精神分析研究戀物的脈絡中，少見以「賤斥」的角度切入文本分析，然兩者在討論異己的它者、否認的機制、與閹割的恐懼等議題上常見諸多相關之處。本文擬從戀物與賤斥的交叉論證，討論王家衛《花樣年華》及劉以鬯《對倒》影像與小說的互文性。《花樣年華》女主角陳太太/蘇麗珍念茲在茲「我們不會跟他們一樣」的自我告誡，成為本片中醍醐灌頂的婚姻警語，但她終究仍無法駕馭肉體的驅力，反陷入情感與理智的掙扎中。這種主體賤斥的臨淵經驗恰可解釋她在尋找自我的過程裡，藉由旗袍、香菸、高跟鞋、拖鞋等戀物經歷排斥、認同而覺醒的心路歷程。在《對倒》中70年代的杏亞處於物化社會中消費女體的戀物位置，劉以鬯策略性地以「鏡子」、「夢境」、「電影」等文學意象來形塑欲望客體的反動意識，昇華賤斥之身的靈魂。兩文本中的主角陳太太/蘇麗珍及杏亞均被強大的父權體制逼向賤斥處境，且在物化的商業社會中的父權凝視枷鎖下，轉化成欲望的觀視客體，她們主體異化成「戀物他者」，希冀以「昇華之愛」或「夢境語言」解除戀物癖的固著情結：亦即破解商業化下戀物的迷思，並解析否認機制所意欲遮蔽的內在傷痛。這種打破物化女性身驅的戀物情結，以探究其所遮蔽的賤斥母 (女) 體的觀看模式理論，是本文切入陳太太/蘇麗珍與杏亞女性精神分析系譜的源由。

In the essay, a hardly discussed yet negotiated middle pattern between abjection and fetishism is suggested to support an intertextual reading between Liu Yichang’s short story Intersection and Wong Kar Wai film In the Mood for Love. Even though abjection is the unexplored aspect of fetishistic theories, its association to the exclusive otherness, logic of disavowal, and horror of castration can offer an approach to mobilize and reify categories of sexuality and gender. First, I will not only address the question of whether the issue of abjection can shed light on our understanding of Mrs. Chen’s fetishistic desire toward inanimate objects, namely chipaos, shoes, and cigarettes in Wong’s film, but also explore the issue of whether her disavowal of cruel reality can destabilize the patriarchal structure. Neither can Mrs. Chen simply sustain the status of being a fetish object nor can she accept her own constitution as being abject, as shown in her famous line: “We will never be like them.” Both the literal and visual text confirm a back-and-forth route to move from psyche to body, from the sexual to the erotic within a frame of fetishistic scopophilia. My second concern, in the literal text of Intersection, details the reflective metaphors of mirror, cinema, and dream, from which I will examine the mechanisms of fetishism and abjection respectively and hope to scrutinize Ah Xing’s dreamy state of desires that constitute misrecognition between libidinal investments and the structural politico-economic reality. Having explored the feminine enigma around of the aforementioned two female leads, finally, I will also tackle the problematic a/object of desire, embodied in the intersections of Ah Xing or Mrs. Chen’s double discursivity that directs a fetishistic attention on the road to fruition, yet, at the same time, cautiously hides and eradicates for the rational sake of protecting the self. However, the object of desire returns repeatedly, not simply to haunt these female subjects, but to take them elsewhere, the in-betweenness, that of disavowal and affirmation. Articulating the relation between abjection and fetishism, In the Mood for Love and Intersection facilitate reflection on a true object cathexis that recalls a lost maternal memory, a reflective mirror that leads us to the primal trauma and offers healing empowerment.