本文旨在探討班強生的《沉默女人》與莎士比亞的《馴悍記》兩劇本中性別政治所呈現出的傅柯式論述。根據傅柯的說法，論述必須被視為是有規範的功能，它所決定的知識和科學足以影響人類的靈魂及行為；換言之，我們平日視為不證自明的概念，或者是基本常識，再或是真理，其實都具有規範、控制的效力。在文藝復興時期，父權主義者利用劇本、民謠、行為手冊、及訓誡告訴女性’沉默是金’的道理，其實另有陰謀︰男人是想要有規範的權力，一旦女人不再對任何事表態，男人便有了所有事的決定權；他們不但可決定女人在何時該著何種服裝，甚至能讓她們把男尊女卑及服從的關係視為理所當然，這即是規範權的最佳表現。
在《沉默女人》一劇中，班強生刻化典型的文藝復興時代的男人Morose，他先是藉由剝奪僕人的發言權，而長久獨佔決權，在要結婚的同時，他擇偶的條件也在於沉默，儘管他如願找到一個凡事沒意見的女人Epicoene，她卻在婚後一改婚前的態度，藉由不斷糾正Morose而明白闡述她的另一套秩序︰Morose該讓其他人同樣有發表意見的權利；當然她也如傅柯的理論所說，透過知識真理的重建而得到權力。
無獨有偶的，在莎士比亞的《馴悍記》中也出現一位文藝復興時代的女權主義者Katherina，她不畏男人的眼光，堅持女性表達自我意見及感受的權利，這無異是在父權社會中造成另一種截然不同的秩序，因此她的滔滔不絕及言論內容都威脅到沉默、服從的‘真理’，而她的丈夫Petruchio也以相同的方法來馴服她，亦即是在她身上重建另一套‘正確’的行為模式，他用各種方法來提醒她服從的‘女性特質’，而這重建的過程就如傅科所說的，必須不斷的征服、同化與其相對立的言論，以穩固自己的‘真理’；簡而言之，這兩部具代表性的文藝復劇本所呈現出的兩性關係驗證了傅柯的理論：權力在於決定‘真理’與‘本質’進而規範他人的行為、想法，而非行使暴力。

In this thesis, I will apply Michel Foucault’s knowledge/power theory to discuss gender politics in two Renaissance plays – Ben Jonson’s Epicoene or The Silent Woman and William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. The first chapter aims to delineate Foucault’s discursive discipline and its exertion in Renaissance male-female relations. According Foucault, discourses are functional and regulative: they powerfully frame sciences and knowledges that have effects upon our souls and actions. Thus, ‘truth’, or the so-called ‘self-evident’ and ‘commonsensical’ empowers articulators to discipline and control others. Gender discourses in the name of masculine or feminine ‘nature’ are similarly little more than instrument of domination. Precisely, the phallo-centrical discourse of Renaissance age empowers contemporary men by subjecting, or explicitly formulating and shaping the ‘feminine nature’ of obedient silence. The patriarchal assessment codifies two genders -- one subordinate to the other -- as a key element in its patriarchal view of the social order, and buttressed its gendered division of power. In other words, what lies beneath the discourse is patriarchal consideration for male domination. As long as contemporary women keep silent, the normative power would enable their fathers and husbands to regulate ‘womanly conducts’ of all occasions.
Then, I would examine how Morose and Epicoene wield disciplinary power by setting up certain ‘behavior norms’ in Epicoene. Morose’s ‘truth’ of having his family members hold their tongue and make signs has been internalized by Mute: Mute is hence drilled to self-discipline himself to answer the family head’s questions in rigidly prescribed signs or gestures. Mute reifies the formidable outcome of silent conformity to ‘reality’: he takes for granted the ‘natural’ routine of body language. However, Morose’s wife Epicoene keeps correcting Morose’s mistakes to reinforce her version of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. In order to rehabilitate Morose, Epicoene and other characters further label his insanity in public. The conclusion they draw results from the same complicity to put badness to Morose’s ‘crazy’ will to discourses and goodness to the ‘reasonable’ tolerance of their opinions.
In The Taming of the Shrew, Katherina is frightening to the Renaissance males equally because of her undisciplined behavior, or her automatic discourse and self-assertion. The male characters in the play try their best to eschew from Katherina so as to defend themselves against the fear that they will not be capable of keeping ‘domestic order’. In one word, talkative women as Katherina are frightening to Renaissance men because of their threat to the original ‘orders’. Petruchio hence invalidates Katherina’s judgments ever since they first meet: the purpose of his deliberate pretense of misunderstanding her words is to grant her discourses no influence on him since disciplinary power lies in influencing others’ deeds. He vanquishes resistance from Kate by making her conformable to his ‘knowledge’—female obedience to male domination. Katherina’s new identity is thus constructed according to Petruchio’s ‘rules’: by labeling goodness to female obedience and badness to female transgression, he thus produces another Kate obedient to his intentions. From this aspect, the gender politics between Petruchio and Katherina is essentially a battle for discourse; disciplinary power lies in voicing and reinforcing particular ‘truths’. In one word, systematic knowledges are never power-free, but quite the contrary.

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Abstract …………………………………………………………... i

Chapter One Introduction……………………………….…… 1

Chapter Two Power Struggle in Discourse: Disciplinary
‘Truth’ in Epicoene or The Silent Woman…… 28

Chapter Three Gender Politics in The Taming of the Shrew:
Disciplinary Discourse in Petruchio's
“Taming School”………………….……………… 50

Chapter Four Conclusion……………………………………… 75

Bibliography ……………………………………………………… 87

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