三本當代英美小說中的魔術：創傷、檔案、奇觀

Abstract

摘要

這本論文是關於魔術與文學、文學中的魔術、以及魔術中的文學性。論文始於一個單純的發想：魔術於今日可以做些什麼？除了娛樂，或頂多被視為藝術，魔術在當代創傷記憶橫溢、暴力遍地、對他者充滿敵意的世界中，是否有任何嚴肅的功能？ 追溯其系譜，我們可發現魔術的播撒是由上而下、朝向世俗化的過程。它的意義與功能，與時推移。我的進一步提問是：當魔術出現於當代文學文本中，是否可引我們深思反省？我將魔術論述與理論方法帶進三本當代與魔術有關的英美小說，探究《奇術師》中的創傷記憶、《戰爭魔術師》中的檔案問題、及《黑人魔術師》中的失能奇觀。 克里斯多夫．裴斯特的《奇術師》主要涉及家族世仇，但其實文本中很大一部分也隱含帝國殖民主義和現代性除魅的議題。大衛．費雪的《戰爭魔術師》與殘酷的二戰檔案記憶有關。丹尼爾．衛理斯的《黑人魔術師》則是由四位畸零人講述黑人魔術師亨利失落及失能的一生。我在這三本小說中所處理的議題包括家族創傷、殖民創傷、現代性創傷、戰爭檔案、及失能歧視。魔術作為推動敍事的轉義，在三本小說中具有重整並改變結構的潛力。我檢視魔術在三本小說中消解認同的詩學、可能性、及未逮處。

Abstract

This dissertation is about magic and literature, magic in literature, and literariness in magic. It begins with one simple question: What can magic do today? Except as a form of light-hearted recreation and entertainment, or art at best, does magic have any “serious” function in a world full of traumatic memories, violence, and hostility toward the other? Tracing its lineage, we can find that the dissemination of magic runs from top to bottom, toward the process of secularization. Its meaning and function vary from time to time. My further question is: When magic appears in contemporary literary texts, what food for thought does it offer us? I bring the discourses of magic along with theoretical approaches into three contemporary British and American novels to treat traumatic memories in The Prestige, archive in The War Magician, and spectacle of disability in Mr. Sebastian and The Negro Magician respectively. Christopher Priest’s The Prestige is mainly associated with a family feud and a large part of the text is suggestive of imperialism, (post)colonialism, and disenchantment. David Fisher’s The War Magician is all about memories of the cruel Second World War. Daniel Wallace’s Mr. Sebastian and The Negro Magician has everything to do with a black man’s miserable story told by four freaks. The issues I treat in the three texts include traumatic memories of family, colonialism, modernity, archive of war, and discrimination against the disabled as spectacle. In the three texts, magic as trope to set the narrative in motion has potential for changing the given structure. I review the poetics, possibility, and failure of magic with regard to dissolving the identity in the three texts.