Why Did She Love Her Mother's So?: L.E.L. Forging Corinne

「她為何如此珍愛母親／的所有？」：蘭登鑄煉蔻琳

10.6258/bcla.2012.77.08

吳雅鳳(Ya-Feng Wu)

蘭登 ； 斯黛夫人 ； 女詩人 ； 美人魚 ； Letitia Elizabeth Landon ； Madame de Staël ； the poetess ； the mermaid

臺大文史哲學報

77期（2012 / 11 / 01）

289 - 328

英文

在十九世紀上半葉歐洲社會對於童話、民間故事的蒐集益加熱烈，民間傳說甚至被視為國族文化的基礎，特別是有關美人魚的傳說逐漸成為跨文化的神話典型之一。此類傳說由政治寓言的縮影，如法國中古傳奇《梅律欣》，轉型為浪漫個人主體追求的代言，如安徒生的《小美人魚》與斯黛夫人的《蔻琳，義大利》。英國女詩人蘭登將梅律欣半人半魚的混雜身體嫁接在蔻琳的聲音上，企求在文學商品化的時代脈動中，鑄煉自身文學的威信，能與當代女詩人的另一典範，有著「虔敬母親」之稱的賀曼絲並駕齊驅。蘭登的自我定義分為三個階段：第一、在〈即興女詩人〉一詩中，蘭登將女詩人蔻琳的即興表演發揮地淋漓盡致，更利用詩人聲音稍縱即逝的特性，她得以擊破流行文學雜誌與年鑑以視覺為賣點的策略。第二、在〈噴泉仙女〉一詩中，蘭登將市場對女性詩人兜售身體的要求，透過梅律欣身體的三重展演，轉化為對她們文字的珍視。第三、〈蔻琳在米賽納角〉一詩則具體而微地體現蘭登如何巧用視覺機制突顯文字的優勢，為斯黛夫人筆下失去義大利詩歌本真的蔻琳賦予聲音。本論文探討蘭登如何與斯黛夫人與賀曼絲這兩位「文學母親」的詩學遺產較勁，以梅律欣的「混合嫁妝」譬喻自己在十九世紀文學商業化潮流下的掙扎。

The early decades of the nineteenth century witnessed a renewed interest in the folklore of the mermaid. This period of intensified nation-building and pursuit of individual spirit gradually shifted the political concerns of the medieval romance, such as in the French legend of Mélusine, to the struggle of Romantic author, such as in ”Corinne, or Italy” (1807) by Germaine de Staël. Corinne, an improvisatrice of hybrid origin becomes a model for women writers in the nineteenth century. Their responses can be summed up in the polarized paradigm of the poetess represented by Felicia Dorothea Hemans, ”the pious mother,” and Letitia Elizabeth Landon, the pretty verse maker. Landon's self-definition as a poetess against the model of Corinne develops in three phases in which she adjusts her alignment with her foremothers and finally finds a way out of the impasse bequeathed by them, namely the overwhelming emphasis on the body. First, in ”The Improvisatrice,” Landon exploits Corinne's performative art to exude the visual confines demanded by the popular periodicals and gift annuals. Second, in ”The Fairy of the Fountains,” she adapts the matrilineal legend of Mélusine by crafting the word rather than the body of the Fairy into the crux of transgression. Third, in ”Corinne at the Cape of Misena,” Landon uses her translation of Corinne's last song to reinstate her virtuosity. This paper seeks to delineate the ways in which Landon forges her own authority as a new Corinne by capitalizing on the ”mingled dower” of Mélusine.

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