恐怖‧女性‧創傷──論邱常婷《新神》的恐怖敘事

Horror, Femininity, Trauma–On the Horror Narrative of Chang-ting Chiu's The Emerging Gods

台灣新世代作家的純文學作品，常會帶入大眾文學的元素，邱常婷《新神》即有恐怖文學的色彩。本文指出《新神》在恐怖文學常見的元素，並進一步探討其寓意所在。論文以女性命運和生命創傷兩個面向，來分析邱常婷如何以恐怖為破口，抵抗秩序、挖掘人物主體的內在。
恐怖是一種公共的型態，而苦痛是內在而私密的，《新神》中人物的苦痛依賴著恐怖形式流瀉展現，也彰顯人類存在之本真。《新神》中的人物在尋找主體的過程中，選擇在苦痛中劈開未來，在痛苦中產生力量、抵抗父權以及其文化秩序、面對自我傷痛並與之奮力搏鬥。儘管父權、城鄉、貧富、文化的架構難以鬆動，但這些恐怖的元素古老、原始而未開發，相對於現代、文明、理性，顯得更無法控制、更具有突破秩序的力量，小說中的人物便在這恐怖、創傷與痛苦的交織之中，自裂縫之間尋回自我的價值。

The pure literature works of Taiwan's new generation of writers often incorporate elements of popular literature, as in the case of The Emerging Gods authored by Chang-ting Chiu, which takes on horror-fiction overtones. This paper points out the common elements of The Emerging Gods in horror literature and further probes into their allegorical significance. Drawing on the two aspects of female life and emotional trauma, this study looks into how Chang-ting Chiu employs horror as a breakthrough to defy order and to dig out the inner nature of the protagonists.
Horror is a public form, whereas suffering is internal and private. The afflictions of the characters in The Emerging Gods rely on horror as a form of expression, which also reveals the true nature of human existence. In the search for their identity, the characters in The Emerging Gods choose to cleave a path through their anguish, to build up strength out of their pain, to confront the patriarchy and its cultural order, to deal with their own wounds and to wrestle with them. Despite the fact that the patriarchal, urban-rural, rich-poor and cultural barriers are difficult to break, these horrific elements are ancient, primitive and undeveloped, and compared to modernity, civilization and rationality, they are more uncontrollable and have the power to transgress the order. In the midst of these horrors, traumas and pains, the characters in the novella are able to retrieve their own values from between the cracks.