中世纪英国文学中的性观念:鉴往知来  

Medieval Sexuality:Time Past in Time Future

作　　者：王明月 Denise Ming-yueh Wang(Michigan State University;Department of Foreign Languages and Literature,Chung Cheng University)

机构地区：[1]密歇根州立大学 [2]中正大学外文系

出　　处：《中世纪与文艺复兴研究》2019年第2期117-139,共23页Medieval and Renaissance Studies

摘　　要：本文以英国中世纪文学中的性侵为引子,以当代性别研究的理论探讨了14世纪晚期西欧文化里的性学。英国中世纪作家像乔叟、高尔等诗人的诗作常常用宫廷爱情的两性矛盾来提醒读者正视性爱、两性关系与他者的议题。在《巴斯妇人的故事》里,强暴/性侵是个什么样的罪行?乔叟笔下的巴斯妇人与卖赎罪券教士分别有性别认同、肉体缺陷与情欲的难题。本文强调,英国中世纪文学显示男女性爱关系中两性矛盾是恒常不变的。乔叟等14世纪英国诗人笔下的男男女女在灵肉情爱间挣扎;他们的性别歧视与性侵行为偏离了社会道德正义,甚至毁谤了宗教信仰与美学认知上的正道。乔叟的性别诗学是在什么样的社会物质文化条件下产生的?14世纪西欧女性身体的奉献与侵犯由谁决定和调解?婚姻的物质条件交换由谁主导?通过找寻可能答案的探索,或许我们将更能理解乔叟诗作中这些性观念的历史语境与时代意义。在21世纪这个标榜异议、多元、性别认同的时代里,性爱能脱离个人政经地位、财富多寡、宗教信仰、年龄、性别、职业及教育的束缚吗?活在乔叟笔下的14世纪其实并未远去。乔叟所彰显的吾人对性、身体、情欲的迷思依然普遍。如同20世纪美国作家福克纳所说:"过去的从未死去,这个过去甚至从未过去。"本文所论述的中世纪英国文学中的性别、性爱与他者等议题,希望可以给当下的读者提供一些对于性爱与性别认同的省思。The purpose of this article is to reveal many of the major themes about gender,sexuality,and difference that figure in the works of Chaucer,especially in the Wife of Bath'Tale and the Pardoner's Prologue.In the Wife of Bath'Tale,what kind of crime is rape?The rape makes the tale a good counterpart to the gender("not-notman")of the Pardoner.In light of the theories of body,sex,and sexuality advocated by Carolyn Dinshaw and Caroline W.Bynum,I explore the motif of raptus in Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale and the Pardoners Prologue with a hope to highlight some"timeless moments"in medieval English texts:1)the pleasures and pains of human love and the lures between love and marriage;2)the ways in which sexual politics libels any moral,religious or aesthetic value which it touches.Here,then,we see how time future-our future-is contained in time past.Much of Chaucer's past is currently present.As William Faulkner remarked,The past is never dead.It's not even past."We ignore what the past tells us at our peril.And Chaucer's poetry has much to tell us.Placing the themes of sexuality,gender,and difference in their historical perspective,I argue that they speak to readers of the 21st century with as much force and challenge as they presented to the medieval audiences.

关 键 词：中世纪文学 英国 乔叟 性别诗学 性别研究 性与身体 

分 类 号：I20[文学—中国文学]