〈死者〉：喬伊斯的生死學

“The Dead”: A Study of Life and Death in Joyce’s Writing

喬伊斯《都柏林人》的最後一篇〈死者〉說的是一個年度的聖誕節派對及旅店裡一段夫妻告白的故事，但卻引出一段喬伊斯對生與死的辯證，別有啟示。本文將從佛洛依德「詭異」（uncanny）的概念來解讀喬伊斯的兩手策略，分析它如何一面建構、一面顛覆愛爾蘭的好客傳統，如何透過詭異的雙重性來檢視人世的溫情與虛情，並對殖民情境下近乎死亡的心理麻痺進行批判。同時也將挪用喬伊斯著名的「書寫如鏡子」論述，說明他如何利用光影變化與人物對照的描繪，來詮釋自我與異己的互相建構關係，來解構主角賈伯瑞的虛榮與自戀，並以音樂的力量來催化他在心境上的轉變與精神上的解放，因而開啟他的「西行」悟道之旅。最後本文將以悅納異己所彰顯的包容力來討論真愛的救贖力量。從生到死，從死到生，〈死者〉以迂迴的方式再現了喬伊斯的生死情懷。

Though seemingly just a simple story, “The Dead” that ends James Joyce’s Dubliners inspires for it reveals a dialectical relationship between life and death at an annual Christmas party. By referring to Freud’s idea of the “uncanny,” this paper on the one hand aims to decode Joyce’s dual strategy in writing and analyze how he constructs and deconstructs at the same time the Irish hospitality, how he reviews the sentiments and insincerity of people via the doubleness of the uncanny, and how he criticizes the psychic paralysis of the Irish people under the British colonial rule as living death. On the other hand, Joyce’s idea of “writing as mirroring” will be appropriated to illustrate how light and shadow are deployed to debunk Gabriel’s vanity and narcissism and to explicate the mutually constituted self and other, and how Gabriel’s psychological transformation and liberation are triggered by the power of music during his journey to “the west.” To conclude, the unconditional acceptance of the other out of the Derridean spirit of hospitality highlights the redemption of love in the struggle of life and death as represented in Joyce’s oblique yet revealing authorship of the story.