繪述雙連畫：《巫多弗的秘密》與《修道士》

Blazoning the Paired Tableaux: The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Monk

本論文企圖描繪、詳述瑞德克麗芙的《巫多弗的秘密》與留易斯《修道士》這兩部志異小說的美學相似處。學者已提出志異文學常延用的視覺與戲劇元素乃源於感性小說與莎士比亞劇場。本文提出學影響，巴洛克藝術。但不同於巴洛克藝術以服務政治與宗教意識型態為目的，這兩部志異小說借重巴洛克的感官第三個美藝術，卻以層層套疊、模仿宗教雙連畫的方式，呈現文字敘述裡一種對新秩序的質疑與不安。《巫多弗的秘密》以多層漸退框架突顯敘事者的懷疑立場，提醒讀者巫多弗城堡內一幅死亡的警示圖拒絕被馴服於結尾的自然牧歌式慶典。留易斯的《修道士》揭開此死亡圖的帷幕，並擴大成為修道士肉身侵蝕腐朽，反創造而行的戲劇性場景。留易斯的小說延續發展《巫多弗的秘密》裡自然／死亡的對比動能，成為兩組仿宗教雙連畫：貞潔瑪麗亞／維納斯、加冕聖母／腐朽的修道士。本論文認為以視覺的結構特徵來分析這兩部小說，最能掌握兩位小說家如何呈現充滿不確定性的懷疑論世界觀。

This paper seeks to blazon the aesthetic affinity between the two Gothic fictions, Ann Radcliff's The Mysteries of Udolpho and Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk. The visual and dramatic qualities of the Gothic fiction have been ascribed to the influence of the sentimental novel and the Shakespearean and Jacobean theatre. This paper highlights a third influence, Baroque painting, by delineating how the two novels refer to the sensuous appeals of the Baroque art in order to deliver their messages in a corporal manner. The Baroque painting of Counter-Reformation, as sanctioned by the Catholic Church, engages the viewers affectively in order to uphold the dominant ideology. Conversely, this paper aims to demonstrate how the sensuous appeals in these two fictions in effect disrupt the restored order despite the celebration of renewal (in Radcliffe's novel) and the enactment of retribution (in Lewis's novel). On the one hand, Ann Radcliffe anchors the characters' emotion through landscape descriptions which culminate in a universal epithalamium. However, the triple receding frames emerging at the end of the novel foreground a vigilant skepticism that questions the validity of hope as it is built upon knowledge gathered through sensuous experiences. Ultimately, the pastoral harmony fails to contain death for the provenance of the wax cadaver, the core of the mystery in Udolpho Castle, is disclosed only to the reader, not to the heroine. On the other hand, Matthew Gregory Lewis exploits this motif of memento mori in Radcliffe through twin diptychs that end in a spectacle of corporeal apocalypse which dissolves all sensibilities by exposing the corpse of its protagonist in the process of decomposition. The tension between veiling and exposing is best examined in a series of paired tableaux-nature/death, Virgin/Venus, and Madonna/Death-that organize the two novels into companion piece to each other, with their connection fixated on the figure of death. By configuring the relationship between these paired tableaux, this paper refutes conservative readings of these two fictions as serving the dominant ideology by illustrating how Radcliffe and Lewis bring forth radically contingent worldviews which lead them to reflect on their own art.