Intoxication and Detoxication: Coleridge as a Modernist and Modernity in "Kubla Khan"

中毒和去毒：論柯立芝的忽必烈

10.30092/JHCLANCHU.200609.0012

鄭冠榮(Kuan-Jung Cheng)

現代性 ； 忽必烈 ； 中毒 ； 去毒 ； 線性敘述 ； 浪漫時期 ； modernity ； Kubla Khan ； intoxication ； detoxication ； linear narrative ； Romantic period

興大人文學報

37期（2006 / 09 / 01）

345 - 363

英文

柯立芝的忽必烈(Kubla Khan)在浪漫時期是一部相當獨特且具現代主義特色的作品。原因之一在於柯氏透過一頗像序言的說明－他自己名之為夢中奇景(A Vision in a Dream)或是片斷(a Fragment)－說明他創作“忽必烈＂的過程，並將此說明與詩並置(juxtaposition)，成就了一個新的文類。此種並置看似尋常，但詳細檢視其中讀者不難發現序中的人稱敘述從第三人稱忽然轉為第一人稱，而此種轉向也相對的在詩的結構中被表現出來;此種對線性敘述(linear narrative)的挑戰，正是此詩具現代性的原因之二。原因之三是現代化的過程中建立了個人的價值如尊嚴、健康和自我意識是重要指標。鴉片的服用使柯氏沉入迷離但生動的世界，並擺脫此種迷離需要有自我意識的覺醒，正是去毒的過程也是現代性其中之一重要面貌。

In the scenario of the Romantic period, ”Kubla Khan” is a unique modernist work which is characterized with the juxtaposition of a Fragment with the poem—a new genre consisted of poem and prose. Next, a linear narrative is challenged both by the abrupt shifting of narrating persona in the Fragment and in the poem; that is, the third-person narrator swerves suddenly without any logic into the first-person. Further, Coleridge explicitly states the process of his taking anodyne because of ”slight indisposition” while reading Purchas's Pilgrimage. He then falls asleep and in the dream he witnesses the magnificent ice palace of Kubla Khan, and transcribes the scenes accordingly into words after he wakes up. Unfortunately, he is interrupted by an unexpected friend from Porlock at this time. Anodyne enables Coleridge to become a shaman who transfigures himself by embarking upon a magic trip to an occult land and coming back with the abilities of prophecy, of problem-solving, and of creativity. ”Kubla Khan” is thus a new genre which records the process of intoxication and detoxication that corresponds to that of modernization which, in its many sanguine aspects, emphasizes the enhancement of individual values such as dignity, health, self-consciousness, etc.

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