文學作為精神療癒之實踐－－以臺灣女詩人葉紅為研究對象

Literature as Psychiatric Treatment: Taiwan Poetess Ye Hong as Subject

本文探討臺灣女詩人葉紅 (1953-2004) 詩作中的死亡書寫，試著說明其死亡觀點，以及「死亡」在其詩中之意義。基於其詩作中精神療癒與死亡書寫間的連結，本文進一步解釋詩人如何透過經營死亡意象，讓寫詩成為生命出口。在葉紅的例證中，「文學作為精神療癒」的確實踐於抒解詩人的抑鬱，並且避免主體在抑鬱狀態下失語。同時，葉紅的死亡書寫也表現出自我挽救的意圖，讓死亡符號盡情在詩中表演，期能分裂並區隔憂鬱病症的死亡驅力。但是，詩人最終聲明死亡之不可抗力，文字無法取代藥物等實際醫療。然而，回返文學作品本身的價值與意義，文學生命是另一種形式的詩人生命延續，讀者可以再次超越詩人之死，回返詩人生前的死亡敘述。

This paper discusses the Taiwanese woman poet Ye Hong 葉紅’s poems about death, attempting to articulate her perspective on death and what it means in her poetry. Based on her poetry linking psychiatric treatment with death writing, this paper further explains how the poet employs the imagery of death and poetry writing as an escape from life crisis. In the case of Ye Hong, literature as psychiatric treatment did serve to soothe her melancholia and prevent her from losing her capability of speaking. At the same time, she also attempted to save herself by writing about death, that is, by sublimating the death drive by incessantly refashioning the signs of death in her poems. Ye’s death, however, indicates the impossibility of redemption through writing: poetry can never be a substitute for medical treatment. Nevertheless, considering the eternal value of literary work, we may conclude that literature is Ye’s afterlife, through which readers can overcome her physical death by returning again and again to her narrative of death before she died.