想像力的重新詮釋：威廉‧渥茲渥斯「無源的霧氣」

Imagination Re-interpreted: William Wordsworth’s “Unfathered Vapour”

本文旨在釐清浪漫主義詩人威廉‧渥茲渥斯（William Wordsworth）描寫其想像力時所用「無源的霧氣」一詞的文化意涵。霧氣（vapour）的型態介於固體與液體之間，在文學寫作上可用來寫景，臨摹山水自然的意境，也因其形態上的飄忽不定，而成為雄渾美學（the sublime）的重要元素；在醫學上，自古希臘時期以降，霧氣被認為是慮病症的成因，是體內所產生的一種濁氣，當其分泌籠罩人的頭腦時，可迷惑心智，輕則抑鬱、空想，重則使人瘋狂，讓患者全然進入一個非現實世界。因為如此，在醫學上所使用的霧氣一詞，漸漸地以部分代替整體，成為病症的代名詞。在十八世紀感性蔚為風潮的英國文壇，文人們藉由標榜慮病症（hypochondria）讓自己別於他人，霧氣也因此成為令人欲拒還迎的時尚語言。從霧氣這樣的文化淵源，我們可以從另一個面向理解渥茲渥斯的想像力。在《序曲》（The Prelude）這首長詩中，渥氏共用了六次vapour這個字，其中四次做為敘述自然風景之變化，鋪陳雄渾山水，其他二次則用來描述陷入幻想的人，包括詩人自己。儘管渥氏極力提倡健康的心智，對於自己的慮病症狀多有保留，但在描述自己想像力的根源時，運用了古典醫學描繪慮病症發病的過程，讓雄渾美學與慮病症間的關係點發揮到了極致。霧氣中介雄渾美學與古典慮病症為渥茲渥斯的想像力提供了生理學論點。

This paper examines Wordsworthian imagination by delving into the cultural/medical significance the word “vapour” carries. In The Prelude, the word “vapour” is applied six times throughout the text: it is used as a part of natural phenomena leading to the sublime scenery, and also the air that clouds a man’s brain and temporarily unveils a different vision. This paper traces the historical usages of the word “vapour” back to the humoral theory in the ancient Greece, its application in the Renaissance literature, including John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and the development of contemporary neurology and aesthetics, arguing that “vapour” in the early eighteenth century is one point where the medical and cultural discourses converge. In the literature of the sublime, “vapour” implied the revelation of the sublime; in the medical discourse, “vapour” denotes hypochondria, a disease, under the “culture of sensibility,” which provided one way to showcase the ability to sense and to imagine. When the relation between the two “vapours” thus clarified, we see an important physiological aspect of the Wordsworthian imagination.