柯林斯《可憐的芬奇小姐》中的「盲」與盲我

Blindness and Blind Self in Wilkie Collins’s Poor Miss Finch

視力作為人類認識世界的重要感官之一，十九世紀以降的醫學，試圖病態化而後矯正各種不合生理學「常態」的身體，「盲」被視為極其嚴重的生理失能。《可憐的芬奇小姐》（Poor Miss Finch）藉由女主角露西拉（Lucilla Finch）的經歷，探詢可視社會賦予「盲」的意義，露西拉一出場即以美麗富有的形象示人，綜觀她在小說中熱情自信的言行，唯一呼應書名「可憐」之處在於她自幼失明。基於自身的社經地位，她發展出一套生活自如的模式，「盲」似乎沒有造成她太大的困擾。然而，當她想親眼看見情人的樣貌時，「盲」變成了一種失能，醫學得以介入，試圖幫她更接近可視文化定義下的能者身體。從十七世紀的莫利紐茲問題（the Molyneux problem）、十八世紀切賽爾登（William Cheselden）的手術紀錄，到十九世紀的聯結論（associationism），都在不斷提問「盲」之於個人的知識獲取、生活體驗和自我形構的意義為何。身為無須為溫飽問題所愁、受過適當􃔁育的成年女性，露西拉一切苦樂都聚焦在人際關係裡，她復明又失明的經歷最終呈現了盲人的自我肯認——「盲我」不是接受可視文化認定的匱乏，而是肯認於「盲」是「自我」不可或缺的一部分。

Blindness is considered a crucial physical disability as sight is one of the most important senses for human beings to perceive the world. Nineteenth-century medicine started to pathologize the bodies that violate physiological normalcy and establish the ultimate objective of curing the pathological bodies. Blindness has become a speculative arena in which Poor Miss Finch critiques the supreme importance given to sight by human society. The heroine, Lucilla Finch, is depicted as wealthy, beautiful, passionate, and confident. Under her circumstances, her blindness is the only reason for her to be deemed“poor,”as indicated by the title. Nonetheless, Lucilla is not“disabled”much by her blindness and maintains a decent life based on her wealth and social status. The moment her blindness becomes a disability occurs when she endeavors to see her lover with her own eyes. Medicine intervenes and seeks to restore an able-bodied normalcy. The Molyneux problem in the 17th century, the couching operation recorded by William Cheselden in the 18th century, and the associationism in the 19th century constantly probe into the meaning of blindness for knowledge acquisition, life experience, and self-construction. As Lucilla is represented as a properly educated woman without financial worries, her affliction and happiness are associated inextricably with her interpersonal relationships. Her experience of recovering her sight and losing it again eventually leads to recognizing a blind self, which signifies not an acceptance of a tragic lack but a recognition of blindness as an essential aspect of the self of people with blindness.