英文摘要 |
What are the ethical implications of the fantasy of love "across the grave" in the nineteenth-century vampire narratives, especially when the love concerns biological issues related to "vampirism"? Since the vampire narratives are not usually intended to be viewed from ethical perspectives, the argument of the present paper follows a line of ethical thought laid out by Badiou to experiment with ways his ethical thought may provoke reflection on vampirism. Badiou's ethical concept of love as a "truth procedure" that moves beyond mere concerns of "human animal" helps to uncover the "truly" amorous aspects of some human-vampire interaction, as exemplified in stories of "vampire love" like Sheridan LeFanu's "Carmilla" and Théophile Gautier's "The Dead Leman." However, according to Badiou's ethics of love that the loving "Two" should supplement the void fractured open by the "sexuated disjunction" between "men" and "women," vampire love must be regarded as too deeply involved in the dietary and sexual elements of vampirism to survive "forcing" by the procedure of "true love" yet. However, all forms of love, no matter human or vampiric, rest on these biological elements; this is the predicament that is regarded as love's essential paradox, which all truthful lovers have to negotiate. |