Making Sense of/through the Family in Anne Enright's The Gathering

從瞭解家庭來瞭解：安瑞特之《聚會》

10.6271/fd.2016.26.1.03

黃山耘(Shan-Yun Huang)

Anne Enright ； The Gathering ； Family ； Celtic Tiger ； Mother ； 安瑞特 ； 《聚會》 ； 家庭 ； 凱爾特之虎 ； 母親

小說與戲劇

26卷1期（2016 / 12 / 01）

55 - 80

英文

Appointed the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction in 2015, Anne Enright is undoubtedly one of the most prominent among contemporary Irish novelists, while The Gathering, her Man Booker-winning novel, is the centerpiece that helps readers understand her oeuvre. Set in the affluent Celtic Tiger Ireland of 1998, The Gathering deals with one of the staple themes in Irish literature -- the family -- through the gathering of Veronica Hegarty's large, diasporic Irish family for the funeral of her brother Liam, whose suicide has much to do with his experience of sexual abuse as a child. Liam's death strikes Veronica so much that she cannot go on with her normal life. The book is therefore an account of Veronica's crisis and recovery, which is not just personal but also collective and national, for Veronica's predicament is shared by Celtic Tiger Ireland as a whole. Much as Veronica has to come to terms with Liam's tragedy as the underbelly of her nouveau riche lifestyle, Ireland must face the embarrassing history of child abuse as well as the oppression and exploitation of other neglected, disadvantaged groups, all of which stand in stark contrast to Celtic Tiger prosperity. This paper examines how personal reconciliation with family history, such as Veronica's, addresses the broader need of Celtic Tiger Ireland to make sense of itself and its past as regards the family. Starting with a brief discussion on the state-sanctioned family ideology in independent Ireland, I will probe into Enright's representation of the family in The Gathering and the gap thus exposed between the state's ideal and people's lived reality. I argue that the process of ＂making sense through the family by making sense of it＂ in The Gathering is a Celtic-Tiger renegotiation with the Catholic patriarchal social vision and its ramifications in postcolonial Ireland. Acknowledging the pernicious effects the family has on the individual and the nation is the crucial first step, after which any enabling notion of family may become possible, as hinted at the end of The Gathering.

安瑞特於2015 年獲頒為首位愛爾蘭桂冠小說家，無疑是當代愛爾蘭最重要的作家之一。出版於2007 年並獲得曼布克獎的《聚會》，則是最能幫助讀者瞭解安瑞特作品的重要著作。《聚會》處理愛爾蘭文學的重要主題：家庭。故事的年代是1998 年，愛爾蘭正處於富裕的凱爾特之虎時期。薇羅妮卡．赫格迪大型又離散的愛爾蘭家庭聚集在一起，參加她哥哥黎安的葬禮。黎安小時受過性侵，他的死使得薇羅妮卡受創過深，無法正常生活。本書內容即是薇羅妮卡個人的危機與恢復，但她個人的心理歷程同時也是集體的與國族的，因為凱爾特之虎也和薇羅妮卡處在相同的困境之中，必須面對天主教會及其相關組織集體虐童的歷史，以及對其他弱勢群體的壓迫與剥削，這些不堪的過往都和凱爾特之虎的繁榮形成強烈對照。本篇論文探討個人與家庭歷史的和解，如何呼應凱爾特之虎對於瞭解愛爾蘭家庭觀及自我認知的需求。首先將簡短討論獨立之後，愛爾蘭政府推動的家庭意識型態，其次將探究安瑞特在《聚會》中對家庭的再現，如何突顯出官方的理想與人民生活現實之間的鴻溝。這種「從瞭解家庭來瞭解」的過程，讓凱爾特之虎得以與天主教父權的社會願景重新協商，處理它在後殖民愛爾蘭帶來的不良影響。以承認家庭對個人及國族的有害影響作為第一步，才能如書末所示，產生具有正面影響力的新家庭觀。

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