「陰性崇高」的意涵與視覺策略

The Feminine Sublime in Visual Arts: With an Analysis of the Works of Dorothea Tanning, Chiu Tze-Yan and Chen Long-Sing

崇高（sublime）這個主題在當代引發女性主義論者強烈的批評和討論，特別集中在康德對崇高的看法上。主要原因除了康德延續1 世紀Edmund Burke 把美與崇高分別派分給女性特質與男性特質，並賦予後者（崇高、男性特質）較高的道德感之外，更重要的是，康德的崇高概念背後隱藏著理性對自然、身體、進而對女性的支配與控制。當代女性主義使用「陰性崇高」（feminine sublime）這個概念，意味著對康德崇高的批判與反思。不同於康德崇高，陰性崇高要批判的是對崇高對象的支配和掌控，強調我和他者之間的豐富經驗與差異關係。因此，本文的重點有三：1. 康德崇高概念的歷史脈絡及其意涵；2. 何謂陰性崇高？它對康德崇高的批判為何；3. 以Dorothea Tanning、邱紫媛、陳隆興的視覺藝術作品為例，說明陰性崇高在當代視覺藝術的延伸應用與觀察。

Contemporary feminists criticize the concept of ＂the sublime,＂ especially Kant’s. One of the reasons for this is that Kant (following Edmund Burke) assigns beauty to females but sublimity to males, and further gives priority to the sublime. Many feminists strongly question Kant’s concept of the sublime because it presumes that reason dominates nature and also the (female) body. Therefore, contemporary feminists use ＂the feminine sublime＂ to criticize the Kantian sublime, as well as to rethink the relationship between (wo)men and nature. In contrast to the Kantian sublime which becomes a strategy of appropriation, contemporary feminists argue that the feminine sublime is a domain of rich experience that resists categorization, one in which the subject enters into a relation with the otherness. In sum, this article is divided into three parts. In the first section I briefly introduce the historical development of the concept of the sublime and explain the argumentation of Kant’s sublime in his Critique of the Power of Judgment; in the second section I elucidate the meanings of the feminine sublime and cite the theory of Irigaray to argue the relationship between the sublime and the maternal body as experienced in the womb; and in the final section I introduce three visual artworks (by Dorothea Tanning, Chiu Tze-Yan, and Chen Long-Sing) to illustrate the multiple dimensions of the feminine sublime.