新世紀的喬伊斯:政治、文本、倫理─感官新樂園:從《尤利西斯》看身體政治與慾望經濟(II-I)
Date Issued
2002-07-31
Date
2002-07-31
Author(s)
DOI
902411H002047B13
Abstract
It has been a controversy as to whether Leopold Bloom, for all his gentleness and
generosity, tends to generalize women in a biased way. Instead of charging Bloom
for the politically incorrect gender assumptions, this project points out that Bloom
does not see all women through a distortional speculum. Woman’s role as a mother,
for one thing, is far from Bloom’s target of disparagement. What significance
does Bloom envisage in the maternal figure that prompts him to exempt the mother
from the category of the threatening other? Seeking to penetrate into Bloom’s
complicated relation with the maternal figure, I first sketch how Bloom shows his
sympathy towards women whenever they are thought of as a caretaker or a nurturer.
I proceed to argue that his eagerness to identify with the mother can hardly escape our
attention if we track Bloom’s desire to feed. Reading Bloom’s desire to feed from a
psychoanalytic perspective, I demonstrate how this desire is entangled with womb
envy and how Bloom’s fantasy of becoming a mother can help him handle the trauma
of losing his son.
Further, I contend that Bloom’s identification with the mother is vindicated by
his desire to be fed as well. The desire reveals Bloom’s underlying wish to be
impregnated by the mother and thereby become a mother himself. I also suggest that
the desire to be fed is related to Bloom’s wish to be desired by the mother. The
fantasy of being desired by the mother, to a certain extent, consolidates his
identification with the lost son and thus makes possible the reunion with his wife
Molly. Analyzing Bloom’s entangled relation with the maternal figure, this project
is intended to counter the psychoanalytic studies which, due to their excessive stress
on the role of the father, lose sight of the importance the mother plays in subject
formation.
generosity, tends to generalize women in a biased way. Instead of charging Bloom
for the politically incorrect gender assumptions, this project points out that Bloom
does not see all women through a distortional speculum. Woman’s role as a mother,
for one thing, is far from Bloom’s target of disparagement. What significance
does Bloom envisage in the maternal figure that prompts him to exempt the mother
from the category of the threatening other? Seeking to penetrate into Bloom’s
complicated relation with the maternal figure, I first sketch how Bloom shows his
sympathy towards women whenever they are thought of as a caretaker or a nurturer.
I proceed to argue that his eagerness to identify with the mother can hardly escape our
attention if we track Bloom’s desire to feed. Reading Bloom’s desire to feed from a
psychoanalytic perspective, I demonstrate how this desire is entangled with womb
envy and how Bloom’s fantasy of becoming a mother can help him handle the trauma
of losing his son.
Further, I contend that Bloom’s identification with the mother is vindicated by
his desire to be fed as well. The desire reveals Bloom’s underlying wish to be
impregnated by the mother and thereby become a mother himself. I also suggest that
the desire to be fed is related to Bloom’s wish to be desired by the mother. The
fantasy of being desired by the mother, to a certain extent, consolidates his
identification with the lost son and thus makes possible the reunion with his wife
Molly. Analyzing Bloom’s entangled relation with the maternal figure, this project
is intended to counter the psychoanalytic studies which, due to their excessive stress
on the role of the father, lose sight of the importance the mother plays in subject
formation.
Subjects
James Joyce
desire
identification
feed
womb-envy
Publisher
臺北市:國立臺灣大學外國語文學系暨研究所
Type
report
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