展演母親的力量─莎翁筆下的芙龍霓以及她在舞台上的變貌

Performing Mother Power in "Coriolanus": Shakespeare's Volumnia and Her Afterlives on Stage

10.6258/bcla.2008.68.07

謝君白(Chun-Pai Hsieh)

科銳藍內斯 ； 莎劇中的母親形象 ； 莎劇文本設計 ； 莎劇舞台歷史 ； "Coriolanus" ； Volumnia ； the Shakespearean mother

臺大文史哲學報

68期（2008 / 05 / 01）

203 - 245

繁體中文

在莎翁筆下所有的母親當中，芙龍霓（Volumnia）應是造型最為鮮烈的一位。乍看之下，《科銳藍內斯》（Coriolanus）劇情的發展大致沿襲普魯塔克（Plutarch）《希臘羅馬名人傳》〈科銳藍內斯篇〉所提供的藍本。然而，細觀之下，莎士比亞的興趣顯然不止於普魯塔克為了警世而高懸的道德明鏡、歷史殷鑑。Jan Kott 曾指出：本劇在政治層面、道德層面，乃至哲學層面都展現出獨特的曖昧感（ambiguity）；考察編劇對原始素材的剪裁，種種改動足以顯示：這種百味俱陳的曖昧感應是莎翁刻意營造的戲劇效果。單就母親角色的造型而論，莎翁筆下的芙龍霓遠比普魯塔克史傳中的科銳藍內斯之母展現出更複雜的圖像。針對本劇「母親」面貌的呈現，這篇論文擬分三個部分進行討論：一、莎翁文本如何為這位羅馬母親增添（未見於原始素材的）危險質素；二、二十世紀以前，舞台表演如何運用簡化的愛國形象來消除這位羅馬母親在莎劇文本中散發的威脅感；三、二十世紀以後，現代劇場如何運用種種表演策略賦予這位羅馬母親風貌互異的形象。

Volumnia cuts a striking figure in the gallery of Shakespearean mothers. Although the plot of ”Coriolanus” follows closely Plutarch's ”Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans”, the effects Shakespeare aims at in this play seem to go far beyond political morality lessons expounded by the sources. The play's ambiguity on the political, ethical and philosophical levels, as Jan Kott puts it, makes it a great hall of mirrors, where no clear-cut moral lessons can be expected. This distinctive ambiguity could be hard to swallow, like “caviar to the common taste.” Although ”Coriolanus” has long been deemed difficult and, compared with other Shakespearean tragedies in the canon, its reception at the box office has remained relatively cold, critics today have largely agreed to read the way Shakespeare impassively withholds explanation as signature touches of the play's virtuosic design.This paper attempts to scrutinize the complex picture Shakespeare paints of Volumnia in this play and contemplate the challenges the role poses for the stage. Although she has implanted clear-cut ideas in her son-from which he cannot emancipate himself, she remains enigmatic in her innermost being, leaving much unsaid. As a dangerous woman who destroys the man she loves, she is all the more frightening for being a mother, who is supposed to be the source of nurture and life. Shakespeare's bold characterization of the Roman mother is not for the faint-hearted and has put generations of actresses to the test.Taking a good look at Shakespeare's adaptations of his sources, the first part of the paper clarifies how Shakespeare colors this extraordinarily powerful mother with disturbing, darker shades after expanding the role Volumnia plays for the Coriolanus story. The second part of the paper reviews the play's early performance history and illustrates how ”Coriolanus” productions before the twentieth century sought to dispel the threatening elements of the Roman mother by textual surgery or other cosmetic treatments. The third part of the paper highlights the most notable ”Coriolanus” productions after the twentieth century and examines different types of strategies employed for the stage interpretation of Volumnia. The wealth of performance data surveyed here should bring into relief the open nature of Shakespeare's text, how it encourages interpretations of different emphases, and how hard it is to hope for a fully gratifying stage realization of a character like Volumnia.

1. Adelman, Janet.,Russ McDonald. (edited)(2004).Anger's My Meat': Feeding, Dependency, and Aggression in Coriolanus Shakespeare: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory 1945-2000.Oxford:Blackwell.
2. Bate, Jonathan.(1989).Shakespeare Constitutions: Politics, Theatre, Criticism 1730-1830.Oxford, Clarendon Press.
3. Bedford, Kristina.(1992).Coriolanus at the National: The Interpretation of the Time.London:Associated University Presses.
4. Benjamin, Jessica.,Donna Bassin(eds.),Margaret Honey(eds.),Meryle Mahrer Kaplan.(eds.)(1994).Representations of Motherhood.New Haven and London:Yale University Press.
5. Bliss, Lee.(2000).Coriolanus.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.
6. Boas, Frederick S.(1936).From Richardson to Pinero: Some Innovators and Idealists.London:John Murray.
7. Booth, Michael R(eds.).,John Stokes(eds.),Susan Bassnett (eds.)(1996).Three Tragic Actresses.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.
8. Bragg, Melvyn.(1988).Richard Burton: A Life.Boston:Little, Brown and Co..
9. Charney, Maurice.(1980).Shakespeare`s Roman Plays: The Function of Imagery in the Drama.Cambridge:Harvard University Press.
10. Cole, John William.(1986).The Life and Theatrical Times of Charles Kean, F.S.A..New York:Garland.
11. Daniell, David.(1980).Coriolanus in Europe.London:The Athlone Press.
12. Davis, Tracy C.(1995).Reading Shakespeare by Flashes of Lighting`: Challenging the Foundations of Romantic Acting Theory.ELH,62(4),933-954.
13. George, David, (ed.)(2004).Coriolanus (Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition).London:Thoemmes Continuum.
14. Hall, Peter.(1993).Making an Exhibition of Myself.London:Sinclair-Stevenson.
15. Coriolanus
16. Hazelton, Nancy J. Doran.(1987).Historical Consciousness in Nineteenth-Century Shakespearean Staging.Ann Arbor & London:UMI Research Press.
17. Heinemann, Margot.,Jonathan Dollimore (eds.),Alan Sinfield(eds.)(2001).Theatre Journal.Johns Hopkins University Press.
18. Heinemann, Margot.,Jonathan Dollimore (eds.),Alan Sinfield(eds.)(1985).Political Shakespare: New Essays in Cultural Materialism.Manchester:Manchester University Press.
19. Holland, Peter.(1997).English Shakespeares: Shakespeare on the English Stage in the 1990s.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.
20. Kahn, Coppelia.(1981).Man's Estate.Berkeley:University of California Press.
21. Kott, Jan.(1965).Shakespeare Our Contemporary.London:Routledge.
22. Lowe, Lisa.(1986).Say I play the man I an`: Gender and Politics in Coriolanus.The Kenyon Review,8(4)
23. RSC's Coriolanus Strikes at the Heart of What It Means to Be a Soldier
24. Miller, John.(2002).Judi Dench: With A Crack in Her Voice.London:Orion.
25. Mulryne, J. R.(1978).Coriolanus: At Stratford-upon-Avon: Three Actors` Remarks.Shakespeare Quarterly,29,323-332.
26. Nuttal, A. D.(2007).Shakespeare the Thinker.New Haven & London:Yale University Press.
27. Paster, Gail Kern.(1985).The Idea of the City in the Age of Shakespeare.Athens:The University of Georgia Press.
28. Patterson, Annabel.(1989).Shakespeare and the Popular Voice.Oxford:Basil Blackwell.
29. Plutarch.(1979).The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans.New York:Random House.
30. Poole, Adrian.(2004).Shakespeare and the Victorians.London:The Arden Shakespeare.
31. Reynolds, Brian.(eds.),Donald Hedrick (eds.)(2000).Shakespeare Without Class.New York:Palgrave.
32. Ripley, John.(1998).Coriolanus on Stage in England and America, 1609-1994.London:Associated University Presses.
33. Ripley, John.(1987).Coriolanus`s Stage Imagery on Stage, 1754-1901..Shakespeare Quarterly,38,338-350.
34. Rose, Mary Beth.(1991).Where Are the Mothers in Shakespeare? Options for Gender Representation in the English Renaissance.Shakespeare Quarterly,42(3),291-314.
35. Sharp, Buchanan. (eds.),Mark Charles Fissel(eds.)(2007).Law and Authority in Early Modern England.Newark:University of Delaware Press.
36. Shepherd, Simon,Peter Womack.(1996).English Drama: A Cultural History.Oxford:Blackwell.
37. Sprengnether, Madelon.(1986).Middle Ages and Renaissance: Literary and Historical Perspectives.New York:Syracuse University Press.
38. Steible, Mary.(2004).Coriolanus: A Guide to the Play.Westort, Connecticut:Greenwood Press.
39. Styan, J. L.(1977).The Shakespeare Revolution: Criticism and Performance in the Twentieth Century.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.
40. Taylor, Gary.(1989).Reinventing Shakespeare: A Cultural History from the Restoration to the Present.London:Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
41. Wardman, Alan.(1974).Plutarch's Lives.Berkeley and Los Angeles:University of California Press.
42. Wells, Stanley.(2003).Shakespeare for All Time.Oxford:Oxford University Press.
43. Wells, Stanley. (ed.)(1997).Shakespeare in the Theatre: An Anthology of Criticism.Oxford:Clarendon Press.
44. Williamson, Katherine.(2003).Coriolanus, directed by David Farr, at The Dukeries, Ollerton.Early Modern Literary Studies,9(1),1-6.