茱愛特「白蒼鷺」中的物活解讀

A Hylozoic Reading of Jewet's 'A White Heron'

Hylozoism is combined with hyle (materials; matters) and zoe (life). It has been theorized since the ancient Grecian time during which hylozoism has been interpreted that all matters/things/beings are enlivened and the life force can be traced from the being him/her/itself. In 'A Winter Drive,' Sarah Orne Jewett points out, 'There was an old doctrine called Hylozoism, …, the theory of the soul of the world, of a life residing in nature, and that all matter lives; the doctrine that life and matter are inseparable' (168). It seems that hylozoism is established as a mediator between human and non-human worlds. Nevertheless, hylozoism also connotes paradoxically that the separation may bring out harmony instead of conflict. Apparently, if hylozoism is classified into the binary oppositional system, it stands out uniquely and differentiatedly in the system. This paper intends to re-read a famous short story, 'A White Heron' by Jewett in terms of her definition of hylozoism. The paper investigates how Jewett helps the character, Sylvia, listen carefully to all beings on earth with the light of a 'primordial language' and a 'meditative openness.' The paper argues that how hylozoism distinguishes Jewett's writing from symbolic discourse in Romantic writers as William Wordsworth. The paper concludes that Jewett removes the symbolic restraint, and reveals the true mien of beings. By means of such semi- or anti-BOs (binary oppositions), Jewett, thus, saunters within the antithetic but not defiant nature landscape.活論（Hylozoism）一詞乃由hyle（物質）和zoe（生命）二字所構成，物質與生命即構成世界一切，因此又可譯為「萬物有生論」。遠在希臘時期即出現萬物均有生命，而生命能量來自自身而無需外求的物活思想。美國女性作家朱艾特（Sarah Owen Jewett）則認為物活論指出「存於自然之生命」與「生命與物質密不可分」（168）。物活論表面看似人界與物界之調和者，事實上，物活思想在調和同時卻也暗含人物分界，更能共融的弔詭。此種奇特的二元對立模式，與一般二元對立體系（Binary Oppositional Systems）迥異。本文即透過朱艾特的物活主義，解讀其著名短文＜白蒼鷺＞。本文並論述朱艾特透過「原初語言」（primordial language）與「開放的冥思」（meditative openness）敦史文中主角，施薇雅（Sylvia）去聆聽大地，此與浪漫詩人如渥茲華斯等的「象徵論述」（symbolic discourse）應有不同。本文並同時結論並印證，在物活書寫的概念下，朱艾特「去除象徵束縛，單純粹取並以文字本有的字面語貌釋放萬物」（Homans 39），並透過另類二元對立面貌，遊走於對立卻不對抗的自然地景中。