感受為憑：論英國維多利亞時期鬼故事中「理性現實」界限上的「感官知覺」殘餘

Feeling is Believing: On the Undue Sensation as Remainder at the Limit of Rational Reality in Victorian Ghost Stories

本論文聚焦英國維多利亞時期一個極受歡迎但現今被學者忽略的文類—鬼故事，探討其文類特色以及與當代超自然論述之間的關連。本文延伸且批判以往以精神分析理論或社會文化批判理論為詮釋框架的鬼故事研究，這些研究取向傾向於忽略鬼故事最重要的一個特色，亦即故事的讀者與其中撞鬼角色所經歷的強烈負面感官情緒。維多利亞時期的鬼故事以當代日常生活為背景，對於鬼魅是否真實存在的問題刻意保持曖昧的「詭奇」態度，有如對應著當代知識界對於超自然議題的辯論立場相持不下一般。而上述理論對於鬼故事所做的詮釋避開鬼魅實存與否的問題，僅著重在故事所隱含的社會與心理意義。本文企圖同時處理這兩個層面的議題，主張故事中以科學或經驗理性法則所建構的現實世界會出現「破洞」，而鬼魅則出現其中。破洞是代表主流價值觀未能關照到的「現實」陰暗處，累積殘餘的負面感官知覺，而撞鬼者多半因其自身處境而與此負面情緒「共感」，此感官知覺即是鬼魅，而非撞鬼之後才生出此感官知覺。因為情緒是實在的，因此鬼魅也是「實在」的，就鬼魅纏擾本體論的層次上而言，即是「感受為憑」。

This essay centers on an extremely popular literary genre in the Victorian age that is generally ignored by critics nowadays-the ghost story, examining its genre features and relating it to the contemporary supernatural discourse. It extends as well as critiques the sorts of studies of the ghost story based on psychoanalytic theories and socio-cultural criticisms, as the researches tend to ignore one most important feature of the ghost story-the violent negative sensations characters of the story (along with its reader) feel when they encounter ghosts. On the one hand, Victorian ghost stories have realistically portrayed ordinary scenes of life as their settings and usually keep an ambivalent (or ”fantastic”) attitude toward the ”actual” existence of ghosts, as the attitude reflects on the contemporary intellectual debates on the same issue. On the other hand, the readings of the stories based on the theories mentioned above avoid the issue of ghost's existence and focus only on the social or psychological messages implied in the stories. This essay attempts to address these issues, claiming that ghosts emerge at the ”hole” of a real world which is structured by scientific or experiential reason. The hole is the dark corner of the ”reality” where mainstream values fail to address properly, and the hole accumulates negative sensations as remainder of the experiential or scientific structuring of the reality. A ghost seer enters into an unexpected and usually unwanted ”sympathy” with the ghost because of his/her similar negative emotional states. The sensations ARE the ghost, not just caused by the encounter with the ghost; the sensations are real, so the ghost is real. From the perspective of ”hauntology,” ”feeling is believing.” Besides, to be haunted by ghosts does not necessarily follow the logics of providential order or divine retribution. Actually, those who are socially marginal are more liable to ”sympathize” with the ghost. The ghost seers, however, may not be able to realize the moral and ethical significance of their encounter with the ghost; they are more likely to be overwhelmed by it.