移動性與自我認同：芭拉蒂‧穆可吉《茉莉》中順服性與顛覆性並存之踐履展演

Mobility and Self-Identity: The Performative Coexistence of Subversive and Submissive Subjectivity in Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine

本論文旨在分析芭拉蒂‧穆可吉《茉莉》一書中同名主角茉莉身上所體現之自我認同踐履展演中，因生存之迫切必然性所發展出的順服性與顛覆性並存之女性移民面向。因離散過程所導致的文化錯置與認同創傷中，移民女性茉莉的身體成為一展演空間，其中呈現了被異己化、族裔化的身體如何挪轉為離散脈絡下的異質展演場域，以馴服之姿進行顛覆主流文化的強勢召喚，達成自我認同的重新協商與形塑的可能性。有別於大多數關注此部作品女性自覺的定調，此篇論文試圖論證，茉莉的女性能動性實際上處於剛萌發之啟蒙階段，未臻成熟。在西進美國的各個階段，茉莉的自我認同皆是以照顧她身旁的男性之附庸角色為主，缺乏對於自身主體性的再建構與反思。但於此同時，茉莉又有意識地利用自身族裔的“他者性”進行刻意的自我東方化以達成轉化與顛覆“成為美國人”的概念。此二元對立並存之矛盾性，融合在茉莉的身體踰越性行動中，從而漸進地建構其離散脈絡下的主體能動性。

In analyzing Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine, this paper aims at exploring the duality of the eponymous female protagonist's bodily subversion and submission, which coexist within her movement out of necessity and ineluctability. In the traumatic process of cultural displacement within diasporic contexts, her body serves as a contested site, exposing others' predominance over it in both racial and gender terms, while also performing a kind of subversive resistance from within this power hierarchy. I argue that, on the one hand, Jasmine's mobility and fluidity of the self are generated not by her will power, but instead by the necessities of her existence. Moreover, in each phase of movement, Jasmine lives a life as a submissive "caregiver," attending mostly to her male partners' needs instead of her own. On the other hand, Jasmine uses her bodily otherness and self-orientalization as tools to accomplish the process of her self-transformation, or metamorphosis, and also to subvert the concept of "being American" from within. This duality and ambivalence act as a transgression over the defined boundaries in the conventions of immigrant narratives. Each movement which Jasmine takes or is forced to take represents crucial moments delineating her trajectory toward a greater sense of autonomy.