本論文旨在探討加拿大亞裔作家柯温愛的小說《名為空缺之地》中的女同志情慾以及性別身份認同。論文分為三章，依序剖析文本對異性戀制度的批判與顛覆、Ｔ�婆情慾展現以及女同志的自我認同。首章探討小說中的人物如何透過性別角色的錯置與誇張模仿，破除異性戀本質論的迷思。我採用茱蒂絲．巴特勒（Judith Butler）的異性戀鑄模與性別扮裝理論分析文本的再現策略。性別符號挪用，不單是酷兒政治的反異性戀霸權策略，也是T婆情慾展演的門徑。為瞭解作者如何描繪女同志情慾，第二章透過泰瑞莎．蘿蕾地絲（Teresa de Lauretis）的女同志戀物癖觀點，分析小說中的T�婆如何透過挪用陰性�陽性符號展現其對女體的渴望。此外，T的陽性展現易遭誤解為閹割男性的意圖，不見容於父權社會。此章後半部檢視小說中的T對於陽具象徵的深層焦慮。第三章探討小說主角如何藉由女同志與男同志組成的酷兒聯盟協助，翻轉女同志汙名標籤，建立正面的自我認同。本章後半部以巴特勒與蘿蕾地絲的觀點，探討文本結尾的女性社群潛藏的異性戀意識形態以及導致女同志情慾噤聲的問題，並透過小說脈絡推論出主角雖表達對女性社群的渴望，但其最終身份認同歸屬於酷兒聯盟。結論提出本小說可視為女同志的反論述文本，透過錯置性別符號以顛覆異性戀霸權，挪用主流文化中的陰性�陽性符號展現女同情慾，以及翻轉社會加諸於女同志的污名，重塑正面的自我認同。然而，女同志的挪用策略需提防主流文化的意識形態滲透，以避免異性戀框架僵化女同志的情慾展現與內在差異。

This thesis aims to explore lesbian desire and sexual identity in Lydia Kwa’s This Place Called Absence, beginning with the textual subversion of heterosexual norm, evolving through the author’s mapping of butch/femme desire and concluding with the protagonist’s formation of self-identity. Chapter One discusses how the text subverts the heterosexual norm through the erotic chaos created by queer characters. I will apply Judith Butler’s notions of heterosexual matrix and gender performativity to look into the textual strategies of subversion. The appropriation of gender is not only a strategy of queer politics, but also the primary means by which lesbians articulate desire. To illuminate Kwa’s mapping of lesbian desire, I apply Teresa de Lauretis’s theory of lesbian fetishism in Chapter Two to examine how butches and femmes in the novel express their desire through manipulating gender signs. The masculinity fetishes are prone to social misunderstanding as penis envy and thereby arouse male hostility. The anxiety of lesbian characters with the paternal phallus will be the focus of the second part of the chapter. Chapter Three looks into how the protagonist establishes positive self-identity through reversing social stigma to empowering self-image in queer coalition. The queer coalition comprising gays and lesbians, nevertheless, cedes its place to equalitarian women’s community at the end of the novel. The problems of the concept of universal women for lesbians will be discussed in the latter part of the chapter from the perspectives of Butler and de Lauretis. After probing into textual details, I will argue that the protagonist, in spite of her desire for female solidarity, ultimately identifies with queer coalition. In conclusion, I will regard the novel as a lesbian counter-discourse by summarizing its strategies of displacement, resignification and reversal of the heterosexual symbolic and foreground the multiplicity of desire and differences among lesbians against the reification of heterosexual symbolic.

Introduction 1

Chapter One
Heterosexual Matrix and Subversive Gender Performativity 21


Chapter Two
Lesbian Desire: Fantasy of Castration and Lesbian Fetishism 45


Chapter Three
Lesbian Identity: Queer Coalition or Women's Community 69


Conclusion 93


Works Cited 99

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