在藝術與愛情之間：論袁牧之早期戲劇實踐的主體辯證法

Between Arts and Love: On the Dialectics of Subjectivity in Yuan Muzhi's Early Theatrical Practices

本文重訪袁牧之早期的戲劇實踐歷程，從他的自我回顧與表演書寫開始，論述其戲劇藝術的核心－－「表演」。本文發現，他至今為人稱頌的表演體系，表面上是技巧方法的細心經營，背後卻隱含著關乎表演藝術的核心哲學議題：藝術與人生的模擬性辯證關係。劇本《流星》的分析讓我們明白，袁牧之追求表演藝術，是在無父的現代性生存迷宮裡，找尋安置惶惑心靈之道；他是不折不扣的五四青年，以愛的追求為動力，走上了現代戲劇的道路。早期「唯美派」時期的男扮女裝「踰越美學」實踐，讓袁牧之透過表演體悟了自我與腳色之間的相互構成關係，其表演實踐不只是一套技巧，而打開了一個倫理學空間：解構自我、成為他人。這讓他與彼時主流的五四文明話語走往背返方向，挑戰了其時代逐漸勃興的陽剛國族與革命意識形態底下的愛情、性別與社會性倫理秩序。

This paper revisits Yuan Muzhi's early theatrical practices. Starting with his memoir and treatises on acting, this paper attempts to unpack the complexities of the core of his theatrical aesthetics-acting. My discussion finds that although Yuan's systematic reflections on acting, on the surface, are all about detailed descriptions of technical skills, in deed, they index a fundamental philosophy behind acting: the mimetic dialectical relations between life and art. Analyses of his one act play, Shooting Stars, reveal that Yuan's pursuit of the theatrical arts is a way for him to anchor his wandering spirits in the fatherless existential maze of modernity; as a typical May Fourth youth, Yuan embarks on this journey in the name of Romantic Love. During his early ＂Weimei＂ (or Decadent) period, his practice of female impersonation lends itself to the realm of transgressive aesthetics. In the constant shuttling between stage and life, he eventually realizes that the actor's self and the characters mutually constitute each other. It is in this realization that he comes to terms with a new ethics-the self is always already deconstructed and in the process of becoming the other. This practice of ethics in his acting allows him to deviate from the then-mainstream discourse of May Fourth Enlightenment and Progress, and further challenge the emerging heteronormative order of romantic love, gender and sexuality under the banner of masculine, patriotic revolutionary ideology.