以愛之名：席巴思欽．薄瑞《秘密經文》中的解密工程

In the Name of Love: Decoding the Secret in Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture

本文以精神分析與情感研究為切入點，分三部分探討席巴思欽．薄瑞（Sebastian Barry）《祕密經文》（The Secret Scripture）中的解密工程。第一部分結合阿布拉罕（Nicolas Abraham）與妥洛克（Maria Torok）的跨世代幽魂效應論述與阿鎂德（Sarah Ahmed）的國族之愛理論，探討女主人翁若珊因家庭背景與美貌被認定無法回報國族之愛，是社會之恥，進而被囚禁在形同社群墓室的精神療養院。第二部分則從療養院院長格林訪視記錄中的盲點，梳理他因挫敗的愛而來的創傷，以及他如何因若珊的啟發而重拾生趣。然而這圓滿的結果卻建立在處處點到為止的破綻，令人必須思考薄瑞以愛制愛，是否也不帶色彩、不以愛之名，行情感政治之實。這是本文第三部分所要探索的課題。

Adopting psychoanalysis in conjunction with affect theory, this tri-part essay explores the decoding of secrets in Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture. Part one engages Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok’s notion of ＂the transgenerational phantom＂ and Sarah Ahmed’s theory of national love to interpret Roseanne’s incarceration in an asylum, a social tomb of some kind, since she is deemed incapable of reciprocating the love of the nation because of her family background and her beauty, and is thus regarded as a social disgrace. Part two is devoted to Dr. Grene’s trauma caused by the failure of his love, as is revealed in the blind spots in his assessment of Roseanne’s sanity. Although he regains his love for life through Roseanne’s inspiration, this happy ending is achieved at the cost of plausibility. This problem leads to a reconsideration of Barry’s agenda in Part Three. This author argues that, in resisting national love through personal love, Barry is exercising a politics of love at the expense of the ethical dimension of memory.