Representations of Maternity in Raja Rao's "The Cow of the Barricades," Wu Tsu-Hsiang's "Fan Village," and Tadeusz Borowski's "This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen"

男性文本中的母性再現

10.7060/KNUJ-HA.201012.0045

孫美惠(Mei-Hui Sun)

母性 ； 男性文本 ； 理想化 ； 去理想化 ； 矛盾的 ； maternity ； male text ； idealization ； de-idealization ； ambivalent

高雄師大學報：人文與藝術類

29期（2010 / 12 / 01）

45 - 54

英文

本文討論三篇男性文本中的母性再現。這三篇短篇小說分別是羅加饒的＜戰地聖牛＞，吳組緗的＜樊家舖＞，和波洛斯基的＜先生女士，煤氣室由此進＞。在「戰地聖牛」中，母性被理想／神化，然而血肉之軀的母親並沒有出現。在「樊家舖」和「先生女士，煤氣室由此進」中，母性被去理想化，以作為社會極度動亂的意符。然而，去理想化的根據仍然是母性的理想化。本文運用女性主義的觀點，主張這些男性文本中的母性再現是有問題的，因為母性本質上是矛盾的，母性的溫柔和黑暗是同時存在的。

This paper discusses three male writers' representations of maternity. Three male texts are examined, namely, Raja Rao's ”The Cow of the Barricades,” Wu Tsu-Hsiang's ”Fan Village,” and Tadeusz Borowski's ”This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” I analyze that in ”The Cow of the Barricades,” maternity is idealized as divine while the real mother as woman is absent; in ”The Fan Village” and ”This Way for the Gas,” maternity is de-idealized to function as the signifier of the extremity of social calamity-the deidealization of maternity is based on its idealization. I also draw on multiple feminist views to argue that the male representations are problematic because maternity is by nature ambivalent-maternal tenderness and darkness exist simultaneously in the mother.

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