＂THE MILLSTONE OF HIS OWN LIKENESS＂: PHOTOGRAPHY AS DISCLOSURE, CONCEALMENT, AND CORRESPONDENCE IN DETECTIVE FICTION

「他自己肖像的磨石」：偵探小說中攝影的公開、隱瞞與對應

嚴子陵(Zi-Ling Yan)

攝影 ； 偵探小說 ； 身份 ； photography ； detective fiction ； identity

中山人文學報

41期（2016 / 07 / 01）

75 - 96

英文

攝影的興起、擴張以及普及（還有在執法機構的使用）其實與偵探小說中攝影的發展運用頗為雷同。在十九世紀後期，犯罪學、心理學和社會學等新興學門發現這些固定且可測量的影像易於複製、散佈、進行細剖，在不同領域各有不可估量的價值。到了一九三五年，亨利．莫頓．羅賓遜信心十足地宣稱，罪犯的影像一旦被捕捉和存檔，幾乎就難逃法網：「從那時刻起，他自己肖像的磨石就無情地綁在脖子上，不論人到何處，相片都會洩漏他那惡名昭彰的身份；此外，假如他是一個逃犯，也肯定會落網」。當提及「身份」和「落網」，顯然假設個體的獨特性在攝影儀器的客觀凝視之下，無法永遠保密或隱藏。身份公開乃透過照片與世界之間假設的對應關係，此關係不因意識形態的作用而失真。這個觀點雖由奧斯汀．弗里曼和亞瑟．里夫等早期作家提出，但從一九三○年代後期開始，美國偵探小說家並不買帳，喬治．哈蒙．考克斯對之頗有保留，而雷蒙．錢德勒、羅斯．麥克唐納和保羅．奧斯特則對之漸感焦慮。檢視這些作者的偵探故事中攝影的用途說明了影像和其指涉人物間的對應之崩壞，以及身份無法看穿。最初被用來揭露身份的影像，如今則用來隱瞞和呈現曖昧不明的關係。

The rise, expansion, and popularization of photography (and the uses to which it was put by law enforcement agencies) parallel the expanded presence of photography in detective fiction. During the late nineteenth century, the emerging disciplines of criminology, psychology, and sociology discovered the inestimable value of the fixed and measurable image, subject to reproduction, distribution, and minute study, to their respective fields. By 1935 Henry Morton Robinson declares confidently that after the criminal's image is photographically captured and archived, his apprehension is all but guaranteed: ＂from that moment forward the millstone of his own likeness is inexorably fastened around his neck; wherever he goes it betrays his infamous identity, and, if he is a fugitive, makes certain his ultimate detection and capture.＂ The reference to ＂identity＂ and ＂detection＂ presumes that individuality cannot long remain secret or hidden away when subjected to the impersonal gaze of the photographic apparatus. The disclosure of this identity is mediated by a supposed correspondence between photograph and world, undistorted by ideological forces. This view, though assumed by early authors like R. Austin Freeman and Arthur B. Reeve, is undercut by American detective fiction authors from the late 1930s onwards-cautiously in George Harmon Coxe, but with increasing anxiety in Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, and Paul Auster. An examination of the uses of photography in these authors' detective stories demonstrates the collapse of correspondence between the image and its supposed referent, and the impenetrability of identity. The photographic image, initially hailed for its capacity to reveal, subsequently works to conceal and to render ambiguous.

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