帝國、照護政治和疾病隱喻：論莫拉利斯《布娃娃瘟疫》中的夢娜病毒、愛滋病和藍色剋星

Empire, the Politics of Care, and Illness as Metaphor: La Mona, AIDS, and Blue Buster in Alejandro Morales’s The Rag Doll’s Plagues

《布娃娃瘟疫》是一部有關醫學的推想小說，探索歷史、醫學、殖民、環境和醫療歧視的議題。小說分為三卷，場景發生在三個不同的地方：（一）十八世紀西班牙帝國統治下的墨西哥市（Mexico City）、（二）二十世紀七○年代的加州橘郡（Orange County）的德里（Delhi），以及（三）2050年未來的聯合城（Lamex），而且主要敘述者皆為葛利果（Gregorio）或格利高里醫師（Doctor Gregory）。在第一卷中，葛利果受到帝國徵召，前往墨西哥市治療「夢娜瘟疫」，俗稱「布娃娃瘟疫」。葛利果是西班牙皇家醫療和醫藥董事會的主任，同情底層階級，最後選擇「再棲居」美洲新大陸。第二卷剖析敘述者格利高里（Gregory）的女友因輸血之故，感染「人類免疫缺乏病毒」（HIV）而飽受醫療歧視與汙名化的創傷。第三卷發生於未來的後國家社會，描述拉美醫療走廊的主任暨醫學生物環境遺傳學專家格利高里醫師與助理佳比（Gabi Chung）醫治「藍色剋星」（Blue Buster）病患，並找尋病毒解方。本文嘗試以環境醫療人文的視角重審墨裔美國小說家莫拉利斯瘟疫論述中的帝國、瘟疫、環境污染、健康、公衛危機、照護政治、疾病隱喻和生命政治之間的關係。論文分為五個部分：（一）導論；（二）夢娜病毒：帝國、獵巫和照護倫理學；（三）愛滋病：醫療歧視、污名化和疾病隱喻；（四）藍色剋星：危脆性與環境歧視；（五）結論。在結論中，我特別指出環境健康和身體健康的鑲嵌性、纏繞性和共構性。

The Rag Doll Plagues is a work of speculative fiction that delves into the complex intersections of history, medicine, colonialism, environmental degradation, and medical racism, unfolding across three distinct settings: (1) 18th-century Mexico City; (2) Delhi, Orange County in the 1970s; and (3) the futuristic city of Lamex in 2050. It is divided into three interlinking parts, each narrated by characters from different generations of the Gregory Revueltas family. Book one follows Don Gregorio, a devoted physician and surgeon in the service of the King of Spain to combat“La Mona,”which is also known as“The Rag Doll Plague.”Book two centers on Gregory’s girlfriend, Sandra Spear, who has contracted HIV through a blood transfusion, leading society to cruelly stigmatize her. Finally, in 2050, Dr. Gregory-- a specialist in Medical-Biological Environmental Genetics-- and his assistant, Gabi Chung, search for a cure to the“Blue Buster”virus in a post-national world. This paper, informed by the work of scholars like Mark Priewe and Maria Herrera-Sobek, examines the novel’s complex portrayal of empire, the politics of care, and illness as metaphor. The analysis consists of five sections: (1) Introduction; (2)“La Mona”: Empire, Witch Hunting, and Care Ethics; (3) AIDS: Medical Discrimination, Stigma, and Illness as Metaphor; (4)“Blue Buster”: Precarity and Environmental Discrimination; and (5) Conclusion. Ultimately, the paper argues that The Rag Doll Plagues underscores the inextricable link between environmental and human health, revealing their co-constitutive nature and highlighting the novel’s prescient vision of interconnected vulnerability.