"Close Your Eyes and Listen to It, What Would You Think It Was": The Uncanny and the Mechanical in All That Fall and Embers

『閉上眼，仔細聽；聽到什麼了？』。《落下》及《餘燼》劇中之詭異理論與機械化

10.6153/2008.20.06

葉姿青(Tzu-Ching Yeh)

廣播 ； 廣播劇 ； 詭異 ； 機械 ； 聲音 ； 重複 ； 壓抑 ； radio ； radio drama ； uncanny ； mechanical ； voice ； repetition ； repression

NTU Studies in Language and Literature

20期（2008 / 12 / 01）

149 - 177

英文

本論文檢視貝克特的音樂劇，《落下》及《餘燼》的聽覺範疇。本研究分成兩大部分：貝克特音樂劇中之『詭異』的研究，以及針對該音樂劇中，機械聲音的研究。在論文的第一個部分，我將檢視劇中的廣播技術與佛洛依德的詭異理論之關連。我將探討貝克特如何透過廣播技術，玩弄虛實的界線。我也將試圖從劇中所出現的重複性，討論詭異的體現。在論文的第二個部分，我先解讀疏離及重複所代表的詭異性，是由於創傷的經驗所造成的。此外，我將藉由劇中數次無法控制的事件中，提出控制的迫切需求。因此，我將機械化的控制，視爲貝克特故意使用廣播來呈現具作之目的；即便企圖機械式的掌控，在劇中是注定要失敗的。在此我也將討論，面對注定的失敗，卻又不放過任何能獲得控制權所而做出掙扎，這樣的表現又代表著什麼樣的重要性？貝克特的音樂劇，又是如何開啟了聲音表演的可能性及潛力？

This paper aims at examining the aural dimension in Samuel Beckett's radio dramas: All That Fall and Embers. The study is divided into two major sections: the study of the ”uncanniness” in Beckett's radio dramas, and the mechanical voice. In the first section, I focus on Freud's uncanny in light of radio techniques in the dramas. I will discuss alienation as the major feature to see how Beckett toys with the limitation of reality with respect to radio technology. I will also seek to explore how repetition emitting from the radio dramas complies with the uncanny in the engagement of radio techniques. In section two, I will first uncover the cause of the uncanny of alienation and repetition as the result of traumatic experience. In this way, there is urgency for dominance from instances of uncontrollable events. Hence, I will foreground the mechanical control as Beckett's intention to use the radio. However, the impulse to pursue a sense of control is meant to falter in Beckett's radio dramas. Thus, I will strive to determine the significance of the struggle for a sense of control since it is destined to be lost. The purpose of the study is to explore how Beckett's experiment with radio opens up possibilities and potential of sounds and voices in presentation. The aim to deliver the mechanical control springs from the uncanny repression.

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