閱讀維多利亞白衣女郎的耽美圖像：《奧菲莉雅》與《白衣女郎》

Abstract

本論文探討英國十九世紀中風行一時的「白衣女郎」女性再現形象，主要研究文本有二：米雷於1852年完成的《奧菲莉雅》一畫，與柯林斯於1860年出版的的煽情小說，《白衣女郎》。在米雷的拉斐爾前派畫作《奧菲莉雅》中，拉斐爾前派藝術家們成功將一將死女性與其悲劇轉化為悲嘆與美的象徵，使她不僅得以瀕死之姿登堂入室藝術殿堂，並成為性意味觀看下的絕佳素材。與米雷同代的小說家朋友，柯林斯，於數年後發表的煽情小說，將此藝術行銷策略發揚光大。與前者類似的是，柯林斯在文字畫面中使用大量的敘述性細節，在緊湊的節奏中，小說中受迫害的女性們的主體性與痛苦在眾多繁瑣細節中漸漸飄然淡出。讀者們被柯林斯牽引著得以以近距離觀看她們那經歷了苦難的美，而在他的安排下，痛苦會過去、美會留下，最終那惡人有惡報、甜蜜新家庭的陳腐結局，成功讓消費了痛苦與美的讀者，無罪一身輕。 本文中分析當時視覺文化與文學中煽情化的女性形象，並分析大眾閱讀此形象的過程，最終意在針砭此閱讀消費女性的文化習性，與男性藝術家刻意創建煽情刺激與女性形象間關連的做法。此策略性做法誇大了女性與唯美性之間的關連，最終使消費者與觀者對於隨處可見的那些扁平化、過度裝飾化、過度唯美化的女性身體再現感到見怪不怪。本論文不僅嘗試解釋「白衣女郎」形象在大眾文化的普遍性與受歡迎程度，更試著藉由分析上述二文本，找到批評家與大眾在消費與觀看唯美化女體時的批判性距離。

This thesis studies the iconic image of “the woman in white” in mid-nineteenth century England in two representative texts: John Everett Millais’s painting, Ophelia (1851-52); and Wilkie Collins’s sensation novel, The Woman in White (1860). By analyzing the reading process and / of the image of sensationalized femininity of the time, this thesis attempts to point out male artists’ deliberate playing between sensation and femininity, and their construction of its link as seemingly natural and inherent. The purpose of this study lies in underlining an effective pattern for representing female icons, a strategy that is assisted by dramatically performing the connection between beauty and sensation, while ultimately reducing female bodies to an over decorated, flattened image for trade. This pattern of representation will first be examined in the case of Millais’s Pre-Raphaelite Ophelia. Through this painting, the Pre-Raphaelite artist established a formula that showcases the transformation of a dying woman into an idol of pathos and beauty—a morally acceptable image for sexualized gaze. A decade later, Millais’s novelist friend, Collins, elaborates the formula in a suspense tale with loads of similar triviality. By meticulously painting the image of elevated femininity while gradually eliminating its colorful individuality, the artist-writer Collins and his puppet artist in the novel provide readers a canvas of well-manufactured sensation in the prime form of a suffering woman. With a carefully designed perspective, Collins, as Millais does, allow readers to be entertained as they feel her pain in an intimate and excusable way. By analyzing the image of “the woman in white” in these two texts, this thesis provides an answer to its popularity in the cultural imagination and the market and attempts to locate an analytical position where both feminist researchers and general readers need as we consume these icons of beauty.