本篇論文旨在闡述誌異小說《僧侶》利用誌異小說的傳統，將超自然現象結合鬼魅性，將恐怖的美學氛圍發揮到極點，呈現唯有誌異小說獨有的美學價值。在十八世紀末葉，受到德國文學中恐怖的文學風潮影響，作者馬修．路易斯寫出與道德相悖的情節。第一章旨在討論作者路易斯利用超自然現象：鬧鬼、召喚魔鬼等手法，再結合仿中古的背景:鬼怪陰森的建築物，製造出不可思議現象(the uncanny)與恐怖美學中的極致效果(the sublime)，文中不斷將隱晦的情慾、性慾等主題與故事情節結合，使得作品在道德與純藝術間擺盪。誌異小說中固定的模式：鬧鬼的古堡，陰森的修道院地窖等地理環境、道貌岸然的神父以及對性單純無知的女主人翁等，其誌異小說的傳統，營造出驚懼和恐怖的氛圍，在此美學氛圍下，其作品呈現擺\蕩的道德標準，欲以鬼魅性使道德界線模糊，旨在突顯誌異小說欲表達的美學價值應凌駕在道德判斷之上。第二章由誌異小說的傳統透視作品中人物彼此之間的衝突，所彰顯出對性、性慾的一套意識形態漸成的標準。對性的議題衍伸到女性貞潔觀的養成，也是意識形態的一種表現。另一方面延續第一章誌異小說呈現的崇高(the Sublime)的議題，結合泰瑞．伊格頓對意識形態作出的定義，探討角色人物呈現的女性風範所展現出的女性特質(womanhood)，在其貞操的持守與對男性的制約上呈現的崇高特性(Sublimity)，因而此特性不僅是對女性，對男性亦有制約力(power)。最後一章則針對路易斯利用刻板人物的描寫，展演性別意識以及性別區隔，並表達其男/女性別差異以及性別模糊的表現。使用茱蒂絲．巴特勒(Judith Butler)對性別在身體上的展現，用其性別的鑄模理論來解釋作者對刻板人物的性別定位，乃是一種意識形態的呈現。儘管刻板人物似乎在男女界定上區別得很清楚，但透過文中的描寫仍呈現性別流動的現象。作者在刻畫男性與女性上有極大不同，從人物行為及身體展現的性別定位，仍流露出模糊不清的現象，是為意識形態藉由人物互動所展現出來性別界定浮動(fluidity)。因此，在作品美學價值的展演上，恐怖的誌異小說更爬上一層樓。藉由矛盾之處更深入討論文本分析易犯下的失誤，而得到一個屬於這本論文研究的結論：所有的作品都應放在讀者與當代歷史辯證中權衡，而讀者也因著時代變遷而作出不同闡示。

The Gothic novel becomes a vogue in the mid-eighteenth century, and its conventions still influence works today that try to fully present horror. The Gothic novel is distinct in its mood, style, and settings. It has established a tradition of horror fiction in which sexuality, violence, death, and immorality are interwoven. These themes work with supernatural power and spectral settings that transmits a deathly atmosphere. Put in such a context, characters cannot but feel the horror produced by those settings and the medieval style; henceforth, they are always situated in the mood of darkness which causes the feelings of sublime. These themes, settings, and style help the Gothic novel to form its own Gothic conventions which still influence the production of horror fiction. The first chapter analyzes how the sublime and uncanny effects produced by the conventions of the Gothic work against the morality of the time. Matthew Lewis manipulates the spectral techniques brought by the sublime and uncanny to pierce through the regulation of morality. The sublime effects transform horror experienced in reading into pleasure and the spectrality in supernatural descriptions makes the morality seem less apparent. The supernatural phenomena divert the reader from attention to issues of morality. The second chapter is to investigate how a set of standards concerning sexuality becomes binding and imperative to men and women in The Monk. In Lewis’s novel, womanhood is the incarnation of the sublime, its sublimity consisting of a force that compels male and female characters to obey regulations concerning sexuality. Thus, from the sublimity of womanhood, a sexual ideological develops in the novel, Staying pure and sacred in body and soul is not only binding to woman but also to man. The thirst for power on the part of the novel’s villains is an attempt to violate and destroy the power of womanhood; the novel’s heroes are trying to embody that power. The third and final chapter is to investigate how the gendered bodies determined the gendered identities with the assistance of Judith Butler’s theory of the gendered matrix, which defines gender types and forms gender identity. Following their gendered identity, each character is citing the corresponding ideological sexual strand. Their activities actually “cite” the gendered concept and perform the gender identity through their bodies. Even though the stereotyped characters seem flat, there is still a gray area in the novel where clear-cut gender’s performativity is improbable. Thus, on occasion, Lewis undercuts the gender constructions that he seems to endorse, making the Gothic and all the effects it produces a smoke screen behind which he can occasionally go against the grain of the (sexual) morality of his time. This double-layer quality of The Monk’s morality makes reading that novel an act of piercing through artistic forms and wondering if what lies underneath them represents indeed the novel’s core meaning.

TABLE OF CONTENTS



Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..1


Chapter One The Gothic Sublime and Moral Boundaries……………………10


Chapter Two Sexuality as Ideology…………………………………………..35


Chapter Three Gender Performativity………………………………………….52


Conclusion Beyond the Text………………………………………………..76


Works Cited………………………………………………………………………….78

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