Sexuality and Power : Reconsider ing the Postcolonial Situation
Date Issued
1999-07-31
Date
1999-07-31
Author(s)
DOI
882411H002048
Abstract
性與權力之間：後殖民情境再思
Sexuality and Power : Reconsider ing the Postcolonial Situation
計畫編號：NSC88-2411-H-002-048
執行期限：87 年8 月1 日至88 年7 月31 日
主持人：廖朝陽國立台灣大學外文系
自Frantz Fanon 分析殖民地種族關係
以來，在有關後殖民的討論裡情欲與性別
位階一直被理論家視為與政治權力的運作
有極密切的關係。透過廣義的政治解釋，
情欲活動常被表象化而成為背後（隱而不
顯的）抽象權力的投射。晚近有關性別關
係的討論更常會涉及大體制、大秩序的考
量（如歐洲殖民史後期白人女性大量出現
在殖民地的現象與帝國統治的關係），超
出了傳統性別對立的層次。這樣的理論路
線涉及兩個問題。第一，這是整個文化理
論裡驅逐主體，顛覆真實的主流的一部
份，卻明顯含有身體消失的可能性。比較
起來，Claude Levi-Strauss 的結構主義觀
點把食物看成是符號、社會關係的運作對
象，似乎並不會造成顛覆飲食活動的結
果，而情欲活動因為本身即是建立在想像
性上面，不但特別容易成為這類「解構」
知識的標的，而且想像既是身體與意義的
中介，如果想像欲望只是權力的傀儡，身
體層次就可能失去進入文化意義的可能，
而權力本身反而可能本質化，成為無法解
釋卻無所不在的力量。第二，隨著身體消
失，接下來當然就是時間的消失。這是後
現代理論的老問題：太強調權力的操縱，
造成的結果就是經驗與記憶常被理論簡化
為幾個基本情境，失去傳遞事實（或想
像），形成公共生活的可能。本計畫認
為，採用心理分析的觀點，特別是創傷理
論的基本說法可以兼顧身體的真實性與想
像意義、主體時間的形成，提供了解決這
些問題的路徑。
In discussions of postcoloniality, many
have followed Frantz Fanon in observing
close interconnections between sexual desire
and gender positioning on the one hand, and
political power or domination on the other.
Sexual attraction or repulsion has become the
object of close political reading and turned
into epiphenomena determined by versions of
invisible or concealed abstract power. At the
same time, many recent accounts of gender
relations have made it a point to go beyond
simple opposition between the two genders
and take “big pictures” into consideration
(e.g., how the stability of imperial rule was
dependent on the massive entry of white
women into the colonies in late European
colonialism). Two questions are raised by the
theoretical orientation expressed in this line
of thinking. First, the desubstantialization of
sexuality is part of the larger movement in
cultural theory to decenter the subject and
dethrone truth, but itself reveals the
possibility that the body may also get
decentered. Eroticization, being grounded on
fantasy, is an easy target of deconstructive
suspicion. But the fantasmatic provides
mediation between meaning and the body. If
fantasy becomes a mere façade of power, the
body itself would be deprived of access to
cultural meaning, resulting in the very
essentializing of power into abstract but mysteriously omnipresent fatefulness.
Second, the disappearance of time would
follow this decentering of the body. The is an
old question in discussions of postmodernity.
The overvaluation of power is an easy way to
lead to the simplification of experience and
memory into a few schematic situations,
preventing the formation of publicness
through the transmission of facts (real or
imaginary). In our view, psychoanalytic
theories, particularly those dealing with
traumatic experience, by paying proper
attention to the real body and to the
formation of fantasmatic meaning and the
temporality of the subject, provide good ways
to overcome such theoretical hurdles.
Subjects
Postcoloniality
Identity
Gender
Sexuality
Power
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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