性別／律法／單一正義──《欲望街車》中的敘事

Sexual／Law／Singular Justice:Narrative in A Streetcar Named Desire

本文論文結合「敘事」（narrative）的兩部分──「故事」（story）與「言談」（discourse）──來探討美國劇作家威廉斯（Tennessee Williams）所著的《欲望街車》（A Streetcar Named Desire）中所彰顯的「正義」問題。透過「言談」分析，本文發現《欲望街車》的「故事」是一則法律的故事：史坦利以「法律」（law）之名求全布蘭奇，他她們所居住的小公寓成為常設的法庭：史坦利是原告兼檢察官，妻子史黛拉與鄰居們則是陪審員，持續對被告布蘭奇進行審判。在這間法庭中，史坦利的「質問」與布蘭奇的「告白／辯白」形成全劇的主要敘事雙線，不斷相互交錯，輪番呈現。本文的言談分析顯示：在以史坦利為王的同質世界中，布蘭奇身為她者的「異質性」（otherness）是她受到審判的主因；異質性必須被排除，權力才得以衍生，象徵秩序才得以安置。另一方面，布蘭奇在一來（來到Elysian Fields）一往（前往精神病院）之間卻也帶來改變：她的異質性挑戰了構成社會關係基礎原則的「律法」（Law），凸顯象徵秩序的不穩定性質。本文質疑在《欲望街車》中，「性別正義」與「律法正義」並未得到伸張，而「單一正義」又是無止期地延宕。本文的敘事因此是開啟「正義」與「法律」對話的一個嘗試，一個努力。

The present paper reads Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire in terms of the two planes of narrative—“story” and “discourse”—to highlight the problematics of “justice.” Through discourse analysis, the present paper proposes that the story of A Streetcar Named Desire be no more and no less than that of law. “Interrogation” and “confession” run through the narrative and set the tone for the play. In the play, Stanley tries to gain the share of his wife’s heritage in the name of Napoleonic code from his sister-in-law, Blanche, and continually interrogates her in their apartment-courtroom, where Stella (Blanche’s sister) and the neighbors participate in the trial as jurors. With no allies, Blanche’s discourse takes confessional defense to resist against unfair accusations based on Stanley’s distorted interpretations of information. However, as much as Blanche’s defense for her misconduct fails, her being of otherness, resulting in Stanley’s rape of her, turns out to work as an ineffable challenge to the symbolic order of the Same in the world of Stanley and Stella’s. While sexual justice and Law justice are not served in A Streetcar Named Desire, the reader is presented with the forever-deferred-singular justice. It is with this singularity of justice that the present paper makes every effort to engage in a dialogue with law/Law.