Wavering Waters: The Sea in Edward Lear

虛浮水域：愛德華．李爾之海洋觀

10.6161/jgs.2017.86.03

王沐嵐(Mou-Lan Wong)

Edward Lear ； Victorian Nonsense ； the sea ； illustrations ； 愛德華．李爾 ； 維多利亞時期無稽文學 ； 海洋 ； 插畫

地理學報

86期（2017 / 09 / 01）

25 - 47

英文

From Edward Lear's professional travel journals and oil paintings to his whimsical Nonsense text and doodles, this study attempts to trace the multifaceted sea imagery across his spectacular oeuvre. The sea, with its fluidity and partitioning nature, is a core element in Lear's Nonsense that has been left relatively untouched. Such phenomenon is perhaps the result of the mass ＂hydrophasia＂ syndrome (forgetting the sea), observed by Margaret Cohen (2010) in literary criticism. To rectify the situation, Cohen advocates that the ＂spatial scales valued from a maritime focus need to be included among the imaginary geographies found in literature＂ (658). For oceanic scholars like William Boelhower (2007), the sea is ＂a field of strategic possibilities in which the Oceanic order holds all together in a common but highly fluid space＂ (93). By charting the prominent verbal and visual ＂fluid space＂ across varying degrees of abstraction and disassociation, this study explores how Lear's ＂imaginary geographies＂ not only reveal animating principles in his Nonsense realm, but also portend to prevalent concerns in current geographical research.

本文藉由分析19世紀英國文學家既畫家愛德華．李爾Edward Lear之旅遊叢書及油畫與無稽文學(Nonsense)圖文創作來闡述作者對海洋的獨特見解。海洋雖同時兼具連結與分隔的特質，但卻是文學中一個較少為人關注的要素。這種現象可能如瑪格麗特．科恩Margaret Cohen (2010)所指，現今文學評論存在著相當程度「忘海症」(hydrophasia)的傾向。海洋對李爾極其重要，在職業上，李爾為維多利亞時期傑出的旅遊風景畫家，經年出海取材；在心靈上，自幼深受癲癇症困擾的李爾常選擇遠離英國社會，長年寄情旅遊作畫，最後定居義大利西岸。雖然十九世紀醫療科技有相當的進展，但對癲癇症並未有合理的解釋或有效的治療。當時的一般大眾，包括李爾自身，對癲癇症還停留在中世紀式惡魔附身的誤解，因此這遺傳病對李爾而言這是一個可恥可懼之缺陷。李爾經由行旅創作及無稽文學寫作，來達到心靈上的解放與慰藉。在無稽文學上，身為山水畫藝術家的李爾亦將其思辨延展至文字外之插畫中，形成圖文相輔互通互換之獨特風格。其《無稽一書》不僅風靡整世紀亦間接影響之後的無稽文學，例如大家耳熟能詳路易斯．凱洛Lewis Carroll的《愛麗絲夢遊奇境》。《無稽一書》主要人物與「他們」(＂They＂)之間充滿了怪誕荒謬的張力，這不僅顯現當時個人與外在環境的不和諧並表達李爾對維多利亞英國社會之批判，並進而透過圖文互換以表達他個人對陸地與海洋之見解。本文旨在探討李爾如何藉由文學中的圖文並列，透過分析其獨特的海洋觀及充滿抽象性的想像地理，來探討他所架構出的無稽文學世界與地理學之關聯。

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