英文摘要 |
A prominent novel by Lillian Lee, Rouge has attracted a lot of critical attention. However, most critics focus mainly on the allegorical dimension of this work, paying insufficient attention to the characters’ curious interactions and subtle psychology. To address this apparent neglect, this paper seeks to explore the complexity of love and the psychic mechanisms involved by analysing the closely related themes of gift, social exchange, and the “debt of love” in the novel. The article is divided into three parts. The first explicates the paradoxical nature of gift and how gift-giving becomes an “art of love.” The second discusses the ideas of sacrifice, parasitism, and the “debt of love” with reference to the difficult amatory relationship between Fleur and Shier Shao, attending particularly to the suicide episode that bears significant ethical implications. Finally, the article enquires how Yuan Yongding’s relation with Fleur is caught between hospitality and repressed sexual desire. The article concludes that the author, through the two sub-plots, allows readers to better appreciate and reflect on the rich and ambiguous experience of love. |