歇斯底里的身體與歇斯底里的情狀：艾德加．愛倫．坡短篇小說中的感官感覺與力量

Hysterical Bodies and Hysterical Conditions: Sensation and Force in Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Stories

歇斯底里常被視為與精神疾病或性別化的社會建構相關，但本文透過「歇斯底里的身體」與「歇斯底里的情狀」兩個概念，重新詮釋其本質。本研究借鑒法國哲學家吉爾．德勒茲在《感官感覺的邏輯》（The Logic of Sensation）中對畫家法蘭西斯．培根的分析，主張歇斯底里並非單純的心理疾病，而是一種極端的身體經驗，展現強烈的力量與感官感受，甚至帶有恐怖特質。
這種歇斯底里來自內外部的力量交互作用，內在力量透過暈眩、痙攣、顫抖、抽搐、嘔吐與尖叫等自發性反應顯現；而外在力量則如波潮般貫穿身體，在意識介入前便激發非自主性的回應。坡的恐怖故事細緻描繪這些力量與感官感覺的動態，提供了一個探索歇斯底里的運作的豐富場域。本文後半部分析〈貝蕾妮絲〉與〈陷阱與鐘擺〉，探討坡如何透過敘事表現歇斯底里身體與情狀的複雜性。透過德勒茲的理論視角，本研究進一步闡明坡如何將「厭棄轉化為輝煌」，並將恐怖經驗呈現為「一種極為純粹且強烈的生命」，突顯歇斯底里在其作品中的美學深度。

Hysteria, traditionally linked to mental illness and gendered social constructs, is redefined in this paper through the concepts of the hysterical body and hysterical condition. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze’s analysis of the twentieth-century painter Francis Bacon in The Logic of Sensation, this paper offers a new perspective on hysteria, focusing not on its sociocultural or gendered dimensions but on its nature as an intense bodily experience. Hysteria, in this sense, is characterized by overwhelming forces and sensations that verge on the terrifying. It extends beyond the framework of mental disorder, manifesting instead as an intense force arising both internally and externally.
The internal forces of the body reveal themselves through spontaneous physical reactions such as vertigo, convulsions, shuddering, spasms, vomiting, and screaming. External forces on the body, meanwhile, act like waves that flow through the body, provoking involuntary responses before conscious awareness can intervene. Poe’s horror tales intricately depict these forces and their effects, offering a fertile ground for exploring the movements of sensation and hysteria within his narratives. The latter part of this paper delves into Poe’s nuanced portrayal of forces and sensations in“Berenice”and“The Pit and the Pendulum,”examining how these narratives vividly render the complexities of the hysterical body and the hysterical condition. By incorporating a Deleuzian perspective, the analysis illuminates how Poe’s texts convey the transformation of“abjection into splendor”and the experience of life’s horror as“a very pure and very intense life,”thereby highlighting the aesthetic depth of hysteria in his works.