「以利！以利！拉馬撒巴各大尼？」：莎拉．肯恩劇作中的褻瀆與救贖

Abstract

英國劇作家莎拉．肯恩（Sarah Kane, 1971-1999）的劇作中，人性的光輝往往被極端暴力殘酷地褻瀆，但於此同時，在她作品結尾卻也往往充盈著救贖的氣息。而這揉合褻瀆與救贖的特色，使肯恩的作品不只在劇場界留下不可抹滅的一筆，也留下了亟待解決的神秘。肯恩曾經表示她的個性與智識常在她童年的基督教信仰，以及成年後非基督教的思想中擺盪。一方面她意識到人類命定的逝去，另一方面她也無法拋棄人類得到救贖的可能性。而有鑑於肯恩與基督教的關係，以及在其作品行間不時出現的宗教指涉，此篇論文將嘗試指出肯恩作品中的殘酷褻瀆，事實是如同基督受難般，闡述並指出了人類救贖的路途。\n 而為求證明，此篇論文選擇了肯恩五部劇作中，最具原創性與最清楚展現肯恩思想特色的《驚爆》（Blasted, 1995）與《滌洗》（Cleansed, 1998）集中分析論述。研究方法上則是會使用阿岡本（Giorgio Agamben）的生命政治概念，因在其著述中，不只指出當代人類社會對於人性必定的背離，也討論了人類該如何脫離這種人性的懸置狀態。因此阿岡本的概念將會用以分析肯恩的作品情節以及基督受難的過程，以指明兩者間的關係。論文首先會指出肯恩劇中角色受到的非人待遇，其實是源於人類存在本身必定踏入的非人性化過程。並會討論基督如何藉由放下對於人性的追求，讓自己不被人類世界包括，進而拾起另一種生命的可能性。最後通過將肯恩劇作與基督救贖納入阿岡本理論的脈絡中，發現兩者之間的對話關係。最終使論文能總結道肯恩文字中所展現的殘酷暴力，事實上指向與十字架上鮮血相同的結局。

The British playwright, Sarah Kane (1971-1999), makes her name for the extreme presentation of profaning violence in her plays, but at the same time, the redemptive air can always be felt at the end of her works. This fusion of profanation and redemption is not only the unique mark of Kane’s words in the theatrical world, but also the key mystery waiting to be deciphered for her plays to be understood well. Kane once said that her characteristic and thought were always under the struggle between her childhood Christian belief, and her adult thinking beyond Christianity, and that is, the struggle between the belief that human beings are destined to be saved, and the thinking that human beings are doomed to face their hopeless decease. For Kane’s relation with Christianity as well as some clear Christian allusions Kane makes in her plays, the thesis would aim to argue that through presenting the most profaning cruelty, Kane’s works, as Christ’s crucifixion, really aim to point out the way toward redemption of the human.\nFor proving the argument, the thesis would analyze two of Kane’s five plays, Blasted (1995) and Cleansed (1998), in detail for they reveal Kane’s original ideas more effectively and clearly than her other works. Besides, the thesis would use\nGiorgio Agamben’s biopolitical theory as the main approach since Agamben does not only argue that the human really live as the forsaken in the human society, but also talks about the way for the human to be freed from this forsakenness. Therefore, Agamben’s theory would be applied to analyze both Kane’s words, and Christ’s crucifixion in order to build up the relation between them. The thesis would point out first that Kane’s characters are treated inhumanly since being human itself is doomed to cause one’s own dehumanization. Then, the thesis would discuss how Christ redeems his life by laying down his human existence, and destituting himself from the human world. Finally, the dialogues between Christ’s journey toward redemption and Kane’s lines would be built with the aid of Agamben’s theory. So the thesis can conclude at the end that the merciless violence in Kane’s words truly leads to the similar end as the bloodshed on the cross.