簾幕；迷宮；女人虛飾：以瑪格麗特．愛特伍德《女祭司》為例看歌德羅曼史消費

Screen, Maze, and the Female Dissimulation: Consuming Gothic Romance in Margaret Atwoods' Lady Oracle

女人和哥德羅曼史消費一直有複雜的慾望及認同關係。本論文分析瑪格麗特‧愛特伍德的小說《女祭司》，思考哥德小說對女性讀者模稜不一的影響力。論文指出，《女祭司》以後設手法書寫哥德羅曼史消費，它的創作本身就串接了流行文化的機械複製與嚴肅文化的反思辯證。另外，愛特伍德在書中創造了身兼流行性別迷思追隨者和暢銷哥德制式情節複製者的女主角瓊，藉由穿插瓊自傳式的寫實自述及其哥德創作，創造了《女祭司》一邊複製哥德樣板，一邊將此樣板暴露於現實底下的繁複景致。論文包括三部分：「哥德消費與簾幕迷思」反省哥德羅曼史的逃避主義，質疑其作為遮蔽現實之簾幕的功能；「哥德空間與迷宮（反）消費」探索哥德多層次的迷宮空間，解剖哥德女角／女讀者迂迴糾結的自虐／虐人傾向與憂鬱症；「女人虛飾與神諭發聲」則思考哥德羅曼史消費所形構的「女人虛飾」空間，討論女人藉消費之名行建構之實，藉擔任祭司傳遞神諭之名開展自我聲音的可能性。

Women's consumption of gothic romance has been an important subject of study in contemporary popular culture. This paper analyzes Margaret Atwood's Lady Oracle (1976), exploring the complicated relationship between contemporary female readers and the gothic production/consumption. Briefly, a metafiction dramatizing the production and consumption of gothic romance, Lady Oracle juxtaposes its female protagonist's realist confessions and her gothic writings, significantly subjecting the mechanic reproduction of popular romance to serious cultural critiques. The first part of this paper, 'Gothic Consumption as a Screen,' interrogates the escapism of gothic romance. It casts into question the idea of gothic romance as a screen concealing social reality. 'Gothic Space as a Maze' then explores the multi-layered and maze-like space of desire evolving alongside each gothic reading. It lays bare the trajectories of a gothic reader's sadism/masochism and melancholia. Finally, 'Gothic Women in Dissimulation' investigates the possibility of constructing from the act of gothic reading a subversive space of female dissimulation. As demonstrated in Lady Oracle, female readers may identify with multiple roles in each romance. The seemingly passive gothic consumption may be transformed into an active self-construction.