父親之（不）存在、男子氣概、及顛覆：論科馬克‧麥卡錫之《血色子午線》

Paternal Presence/Absence, Manliness, and Subversion: Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian

「看這個孩子」，《血色子午線》如此揭開了一個14 歲少年與一群頭皮獵人在內戰前美國西南部的血腥冒險。這樣的經驗同時紀錄著此少年如何成為男人的過程。此群獵人的精神領袖－－霍爾頓法官－－說了個關於兒子如何面對他消失（其實是被謀殺）而被神格化的父親的故事。我們要如何看待這樣一個消失的父親與兒子間的關係？如此不存在的父親如何能影響兒子對自身男子氣概的看法？在這極度血腥的冒險中，少年要如何面對神性、暴力、與男子氣概間的相互關係？本文受佛洛伊德在〈家庭羅曼史〉及《圖騰與禁忌》的論點所啟發，試圖了解法官如何對頭皮獵人們同時有著領導者與壓迫者的父系作用，及少年與法官間的角力（其中包括少年對於法官的依附及疏離）。本文強調兒子對於其所身處之社群的影響力，並同時藉由將《血色子午線》中不同的男性角色相互並列，進而嘗試擴展男性研究的視野。本文首先檢視法官與獵人群間的暴力結構關係及其所代表的意義。接著著重於少年在此暴力、男子氣概、與理想化交織而成的結構中的自我立場，及其立場如何暗中顛覆此結構、卻也同時造成其自身於此結構中被邊緣化。麥卡錫藉由少年、法官、與眾獵人間的互動關係，反思個人如何認同一理想父權之化身與男子氣概乃暴力施行之概念，及此認同對男性的影響。

“See the child” (3), Blood Meridian thus begins with the unnamed 14-year-old kid’s bloody adventure with a group of male scalp-hunters in the antebellum American Southwest—an experience that marks his initiation into manhood. The group’s potential spiritual father, Judge Holden, tells a story of a son’s response to his disappeared (actually violently murdered) and mythologized father. How should we make sense of this relation of a boy to his absent father? How does this paternal absence influence the boy’s conception of manliness? What does the judge mean by the association between divinity, violence, and manliness for the kid in this zenith of bloodshed? Taking cues from Freud’s ideas expressed in “Family Romances” and Totem and Taboo, this article studies the kid’s struggles with—both his attachment to and detachment from—the judge, who functions as a leading but devastating paternal figure for the group of scalp-hunters. The article hopes to highlight the significance of the son’s relation to a social community and also to expand the scope of men’s studies by juxtaposing different figures of men in Blood Meridian. The article first examines the structure and the meaning of violence shared by the judge and his scalp-hunting horde, and then focuses on the kid’s position to them, studying how this destabilizing position leads to the kid’s potential subversion of and eventual marginalization within this structure of manliness, violence, and idealization. McCarthy thus deliberates upon the consequence of one’s identifications with an ideal authority and acts of violence to define manliness, especially through his depictions of the dynamics between the kid, the judge, and the other members of the Glanton gang.