The Voice of Trauma: The Silence of the Traumatic Self in Pat Barker's Another World

創傷的語聲：論派特．巴克《另一個世界》中創傷主體的沉默

En-hui Shih(施恩惠)

the traumatic subject ； destructive plasticity ； silence ； Catherine Malabou ； Cathy Caruth ； 創傷主體 ； 破壞性塑膠性 ； 沉默 ； 瑪拉布 ； 卡露斯

興大人文學報

69期（2022 / 09 / 01）

199 - 223

英文;繁體中文

Pat Barker is a contemporary British novelist known for exploring historical topics, such as memory, trauma, class, and gender in her novels. She often uses WWI as the backdrop for her novels to portray the cruelty of war and the psychological afflictions of traumatized veterans. In Another World, Barker presents the story of a 101-year-old WWI veteran, Geordie, who remains silent to deal with his traumatic past. Readers most often interpret Geordie's silence as a negative effect of his unclaimed trauma. However, silence may also serve as an alternate means through which a traumatized victim makes sense of their survival. Catherine Malabou, a French poststructuralist, proposed the concept of destructive plasticity to indicate how trauma may bring new possibilities and freedom to traumatized individuals. Her proposed concept sheds new light on how Geordie's silence may be interpreted more positively. The present study draws on Malabou's destructive plasticity and Cathy Caruth's theory of trauma and argues that Geordie's silence is a new form of life leading him toward making sense of his survival and his past.

英國當代小說家派特．巴克長期探討記憶、創傷、階級、性別等複雜的歷史議題。巴克常以第一次世界大戰為背景，生動描述劫後餘生的軍人在戰後如何面對心理與生理的創傷以及如何面對戰後自我主體的改變。巴克於《另一個世界》中，描繪一戰老兵高第如何以沉默面對過去創傷。高第的沉默對巴克與多數評論家而言，乃創傷主體深陷過去創傷，無法復原的象徵。然而凱薩琳．瑪拉布的對創傷全新的詮釋思考為傳統佛洛伊德對創傷主體的看法開創了新的面向。對瑪拉布而言，那無法（不願）使用語言表達自身經驗的創傷者正以沉默、性格轉變等看似消極但卻又充滿可能性的生命形式同時面對其創傷過去與未知的未來。本論文試圖以瑪拉布提倡的「破壞性塑膠性」（destructive plasticity）概念協同凱西．卡露斯的創傷理論重新審視高第的沉默乃創傷主體以新的生命形式（form）存於當下、理解其存活意義的最佳展現，藉此重新賦予高第沉默創傷主體新的生命意涵。

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   連結：
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