（不）受弱的女人：柯慈《屈辱》中的性暴力、法律與南非新自由主義

(In)Vulnerable Women in J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace: Rape and the Law in Neoliberal South Africa

本論文以巴特勒的受弱力理論開始，探討《屈辱》中的兩場性侵以及女性在性侵中是否有除了性受害之外的受弱性。梅蘭妮經歷權勢性侵卻被消音、主體性被抹除，成為性侵中完全受弱的性受害者。此外，我們既心疼遭受性侵的露西，卻也佩服她所展現因受而弱的能動力。她不讓任何人定義她所經歷的一切，也只有她能夠實踐她心目中的正義；在法律懸置與其暴力被暴露之際，她才得以訴說自己的想法、決定自己的未來。《屈辱》亦反映了南非在新自由主義經濟政策的推行下，危命的不平等分配亦加惡化的事實──性別暴力、階級分化與種族間的緊張關係，成為法律所遮掩或視而不見的真相，也造就了在種族隔離制度結束之後，以暴力取代暴力的惡性循環。露西遭受的性暴力提醒我們：正義無法透過法律實踐，亦無法透過暴力報復取得，想要跳脫法律與暴力的共生關係，唯有揭露法律的暴力並將暴力的法律懸置，透過女性受弱的生命經驗／創傷，展現女性的主體性。

This essay commences by exploring Judith Butler’s theory of vulnerability, using two rape cases from J. M. Coetzee’s novel, Disgrace, to examine the different vulnerable states that female victims experience. Melanie Isaacs becomes a sexual victim when her voice and subjectivity are erased following her sexual abuse by David Lurie. In contrast, Lucy Lurie’s trauma from the rape leads to her transformation from a passive sexual victim into a Butlerian agent with vulnerability. Disgrace also sheds light on the unequal distribution of precarity in the neoliberal South Africa: issues like sexual violence, class distinctions, and racial tensions are often overlooked by the government and unfairly dealt with in the legal system. Such a vicious cycle of precarity and legal exclusion has persisted since the apartheid era. Lucy’s rape underscores the limitation of achieving justice through legal means or revenge, and her pregnancy suggests that breaking the short-circuited cycle between the law and violence may involve suspending the law’s overwhelming dominance and allowing subjugated citizens to express their own ideas about what they have been through.