過渡與凝聚：維吉尼亞•吳爾芙片刻異景的德勒茲式閱讀

Abstract

「合」是維吉尼亞•吳爾芙作品中經常出現的主題。吳爾芙透過對生命、秩序、樣式的描述呈現其對「合」的想法。吳爾芙的「合」從充滿安穩、連貫、平和以及永恆的氛圍中浮現，藉此抗衡「流動不居的」、「短暫即逝的」、「幽昧不明的」狀態。然而，吳爾芙的「合」同時也包含一種「變動的」、「未知的」、「不受限的」的特質，進而使「合」具有斷裂性與流動性。這兩種面向的「合」和情境中的物質層面有緊密的連結。透過德勒茲和葛達希對於渾沌未明狀態所隱含的可變性與無限性的探討，以及德勒茲對於「路徑」、「過渡」和「圖表」概念的分析，來觀察吳爾芙的書寫，有助於更進一步瞭解吳爾芙的「合」如何透過物質層面達到其強度。吳爾芙的「合」指向一種凝聚的過程，而非整合既有成份的完整組構，也不是強調崇高完滿的超越性：斷裂性和流動性的特質著重於卸下既有認知與價值所形成的束縛，並非全然的毀壞、對立或變動不居；物質層面則呼應這樣具有斷裂與流動特質的凝聚過程，個人、情感、物質在卸下附加於上的認同價值後，能夠成為接受多元可能性、多元組合的元素，這種意義下的物質層面實為不受限於個體的「實質」(matter of fact)層面。 德勒茲對於「事件」概念的分析中，由狀態所組成的「既成/實現」(actualization)面向包含兩種發展方向：一方面指的是既成的、已定義的狀態，另一方面則指向在狀態中發揮效果的重新組構。「反既成」(counter-actualization)面向同時包含這兩種既成及實現的方向：反既成面向超越既成狀態的僵化，並由此開啟重新組構的實現狀態。從德勒茲對於「事件」的觀點來觀察，「追求事件意義」(willing the event)不必然侷限於被動地接受事件的既成狀態，而可視為一種反既成面向的表現。這樣的態度對於既成價值的抵抗，以及重新組構的實現狀態的開啟，一方面型塑出一種「主動積極型態的倫理觀」，強化了反既成面向的重要性，以及這樣的面向在重新組構的實現狀態中所能發揮的正面效果；另一方面，更進一步地，反既成面向的運作並不受限於主動與被動的既成架構中，而是企圖開啟追求事件意義的多元路徑，著重於鬆動既成僵化面向過程中不可或缺的潛在虛擬平面的開展。這樣的潛在虛擬平面開展於分歧序列之間所形成的斷裂及迴響。如果將反既成過程中所面對的分歧、斷裂及迴響納入考量，追求事件意義的意志運作便不再侷限於個人意願的主動或被動。有別於對個人意願自主性的追求，追求事件意義的意志強度取決於能受性、潛在性與可塑性的能力施展的程度，所展現的是一種感受分歧序列內在性，開展分歧序列潛在性，以及凝聚分歧序列可塑性的能力，讓個體的內在性能夠不受限於個人框架，存在於「存有的合聲」(univocity of Being)之中。存有的合聲是德勒茲「超越經驗法則的經驗主義倫理」(transcendental empiricist ethics)的內涵，也是吳爾芙「合」的概念所具有的內在性。

The idea of the whole is a consistent theme in Virginia Woolf’s works, which is presented through her descriptions of life, order, and pattern. Woolf’s idea of the whole emerges from an atmosphere teeming with stability, coherence, peace, and eternity as resistance against “the flowing, the fleeting, the spectral.” Nonetheless, Woolf’s idea of the whole is also simultaneously characteristic of the “varying,” the “unknown,” and the “uncircumscribed,” which features disruption and fluidity. These two aspects of the whole are closely interlinked with the material aspect in contexts. Involvement of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s exploration of the variability and infinity of chaos, along with Deleuze’s conceptual analyses of trajectory, becoming, and diagram, in observing Woolf’s writings may facilitate an understanding of how Woolf’s idea of the whole achieves its intensity via the material aspect. Woolf’s idea of the whole points to a process of composition, rather than an integration of given constituents or a transcendence of sublimity and completeness. Disruption and fluidity that characterize this sense of the whole are not to be deemed equivalents of overwhelming destruction, opposition, or precariousness. Instead, disruption and fluidity are laid out via laying down the imposed confinement of given identities and values. The material aspect of this sense of the whole points to a process of contraction resonating with disruption and fluidity, in which individuals, feelings and emotions, and things, after laying down their affiliated, recognized values, become elements susceptible to diverse potentialities and compositions. The material aspect in this sense is an orientation toward an impersonal level of “matter of fact.” In Deleuze’s analysis of the concept of the event, actualization, as a level composed of states of affairs, may have two directions of development. On one hand, actualization may refer to actualized, defined states of affairs; on the other hand, actualization may point to reworked compositions put into effect in states of affairs. Counter-actualization involves both aspects of actualization: it disrupts the rigidity of actualized states so as to launch reworked compositions in actualization. In terms of Deleuze’s view of the event, willing the event is not necessarily delimited to passive acceptance of actualized states of affairs, but instead may be regarded as an expression of counter-actualization. On the one hand, resistance against actualized values and initiation of reworked actualization shape “an active mode of ethics,” which reinforces the significance of counter-actualization and its positive effects in reworked actualization. On the other hand, with a further step, counter-actualization does not circumscribe its operation within an actualized framework of activity and passivity. With an attempt to open access to alternative and diverse trajectories of willing the event, counter-actualization focuses on the indispensability of unfolding a potential, virtual plane in processes of slackening the rigidity of actualization. This potential, virtual plane lays out in disjunctions and resonances between divergent series. If the confronted divergences, disjunctions, and resonances in processes of counter-actualization are taken into account, the operation of the will that wills the event is no longer confined to the activity or passivity of personal will. Distinguished from a pursuit of the autonomy of personal will, the intensity of the will that wills the event relies on the extent of exertion of susceptibility, potentiality, and plasticity, which display the susceptibility to the immanence of divergent series, lay out the potentiality of divergent series, and compose the plasticity of divergent series. This sense of willing the event in terms of the extent of susceptibility, potentiality, and plasticity enables the immanence of an individual to impersonally emerge from the “univocity of Being.” The univocity of Being is the quintessence of the Deleuzian “transcendental empiricist ethics,” which is also the immanence of Woolf’s conception of the whole.