《顫抖女子，或我的神經歷史》中的能動性、大腦回憶錄與書寫治療

Agency, Brain Memoir, and Writing Cure in The Shaking Woman, or a History of My Nerves

近來在認知科學領域的探索已經改寫了過去行為主義的限制並同時見證了當代小說一個新（次）文類的出現，即神經學的敘述或神經小說（neuronovel），意指傳統過去在心理分析中之心智作用，轉由大腦功能性所取代。藉由分析席莉〃胡思薇（Siri Hustvedt）的大腦回憶錄（brain memoir）《顫抖女子或我的神經歷史》（The Shaking Woman, or a History of My Nerves），本篇論文試圖探討作品中，曾經入圍2014年曼氏布克獎的人文學創作者，如何以自身經歷批判性地整合詮釋了大腦認知、身體感知與自我認同之間的相互影響與交互作用。作為一神經學敘述文本，《顫抖女子》推展了文學敘事、神經科學、疾病治療與作者自身的生命經驗的邊界前沿，重新詮釋人體因莫名之神經系統異常所導致的肉體與自身意識感知之異化經驗，並進而問題化傳統哲學上心身二元論的探討。論文首先透過檢視心智、意識與傳統的心身二元論意涵，重新理解定位其在當下神經與大腦科學研究的趨勢下如何呈現，而此種新的詮釋與辯證如何影響了當代文化學者如席莉〃胡思薇（Siri Hustvedt）的創作，在文本中呈現神經系統或是大腦功能的認知變異如何反向形塑一種兼具被動接受性與創造反叛性的主體能動性。扣合前項討論，論文第二部分接著探討作者如何將此種被激發衍生之能動的思考，內化在「書寫」的策略技術中。胡思薇闡述書寫的日常過程作為一個策略，如何混同著外在偶發之異體作用力所導致的無法控制之身體顫抖，共同強化了她的自我意識與形塑了個體的主體認同政治。在此次文類大腦回憶錄作品中，「書寫」成為對神經異常化之兼容並蓄的載體，並由其衍化出不同於正常化常模型態下的能動性或認同建構。

Recent explorations in cognitive science have re-written the restrictions of behaviorism and spawned an emergent subgenre of contemporary fiction –neurological narratives, or “neuronovels,” wherein the mind in conventional psychoanalysis becomes the brain. Through analyzing Siri Hustvedt‟s brain memoir The Shaking Woman, or a History of My Nerves, this paper aims to integrate and critically assess the discourses of the complicated interconnections of brain science, body, and self-identity. Serving as a neurological narrative, The Shaking Woman takes the form of pushing back the boundary of Mind-Body knowledge, adaptation, and reconciliation among neuroscience, philosophy, medical practice, and the writer‟s lived experience. Hustvedt recounts her attempts to make sense of and to live with a profound change to her life that arises from neurological disorders or anomalies in the brain/nerve system as a whole. This paper will first investigate the notions of mind, consciousness, body and materiality through the lens of the mind-body problem, in order to provide explanatory notes to help examine the writer‟s lived experience. The second part of this paper will elucidate how agency and sense of selfhood are gradually established or achieved by the act of writing. With its thorough examination of neurological illness and consciousness via a process of autobiographical awareness, The Shaking Woman thus serves as the product of a writing cure in which the author draws upon her unconsciousness to forge a sense of agency via writing. Hustvedt thus articulates the daily process of writing as a strategy for compounding her sense of self with the foreign adventitious force in her body that leads to her shaking. In this brain memoir writing is a powerful tool that can be used to confront neurological anomalies and so craft an agency or identity. Through writing, Hustvedt can accommodate changes in her brain, body and identity formation.