邁向暗房：福克納《押沙龍，押沙龍！》與攝影媒介性

Toward the Dark House: Photographic Mediality in William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!

本文嘗試檢視銀版攝影在技術操作與物質層次如何傳介福克納 (William FaulknerFaulkner)《押沙龍，押沙龍！》 (Absalom, Absalom! Absalom!)的敘事發展與種族感知，希望藉此回應近年來在福克納研究當中興起的媒介轉向。文章首先探討攝影究裡的脈絡：從福克納自身對肖像攝影興趣，過渡到連續性作為別／族群身分 之隱喻，繼而鋪陳攝影實踐物質性可能展開的論述視野。其次文章聚焦 於銀版攝影的特徵，強調儘管報導看似預設「相」或者準確技術邏輯，但其媒介性實則凸顯攝影操作本質的不穩定與感光物脆弱使得觀看銀版攝影的經驗存在背離清晰與秩序化面向。最後，文章分析《押沙龍，押沙龍！》裡的攝影修辭，揭示銀版可變操作程序何以介入 《押沙龍，押沙龍！》 晦澀的敘事邏輯，並指出暗房條件與環境協助福克納以觸覺化視描寫呈現種族衝突所引發的強烈情感。

Echoing an emerging field of criticism that foregrounds the techno-mediated experiences in William Faulkner’s work, this article looks at how the technical operations and material effects of daguerreotype contribute to Faulkner’s narrative logic and his configuration of racial perception in Absalom, Absalom!.The article begins with a comprehensive survey on photography’s role in shaping Faulkner’s writing: from his engagement with photographic portraiture, to the negative as an elaborate metaphor intended to represent sexual inequality and racial identity, and to the way in which the material properties of photography cast new light on Faulkner’s narrative design. The article then explores the characteristics of daguerreotype, in particular its material precarity and operational instability. These characteristics unsettle the promise of accuracy contained in advertisements for the daguerreotype studio. At last, the article investigates the novel’s narrative ambiguity and racial perception by turning to the material changes in the image’s different stages of formation and to the intangible forms articulated through the transfer of energy in the darkroom. Faulkner’s writing, I argue, not only externalizes the dynamics of intense emotions aroused by racial conflicts, but also formalizes affectively-charged scenes in the novel.