De-/Encoding (of) Postcards in “Nausicaa”

本計劃擬以解構學者德希達於1987(英譯)《明信片》裡所闡述之明信片 敞露其所印刷、書寫的訊息，任由非特定收信者的任何讀者隨意攔截、解讀 的宿命，來對照解讀《尤利西斯》這部時時指涉、包含信件、明信片的小說, 特別是第十三章的〈瑙西卡〉。 〈瑙西卡〉的女主角歌蒂‧麥克道爾的塑造本於喬伊斯約1918 年於蘇黎 世邂逅的馬瑟‧弗萊希曼，喬氏曾寄給馬瑟許多情書，其中更包含一張直接 稱馬瑟為「瑙西卡」而喬自己署名「奧德塞」的明信片。因此，〈瑙西卡〉可 說印拓了喬對馬瑟的慾望。然而，正如同喬寫給馬瑟的明信片裡兩人身份刻 意扮演，〈瑙西卡〉裡的慾望主、客體—分指敘述者、布魯姆、歌蒂—其實亦 循環於假身份、或稱「虛構的真實」的「流程」當中, 將〈瑙西卡〉此文本視 為明信片的圖樣及文案的閱讀策略，在於突顯男性作者之慾求型塑其慾望對 象成為兼有維多利亞時代中產階級淑女及具致命吸引力貴族女子的綜合體於 一張明信片上，而令其廣為流傳;然而,同樣的製（成明信片）碼工程也因閱讀 者的隨機、不定而有逸出原製碼者原用意的解碼效果。〈瑙西卡〉的「真理」 就在不同的「郵差」間擺盪不決。 本計劃另一個重點則在證明如此使形式「明信片化」而達致任意攔截其 意的特殊「表演」正是喬伊斯「相對化」霸權言說（在此指製成維多利亞階 級精神，及父權慾望結構符碼）的利器，此風格表演自有其政治性。如同前一章〈獨眼巨人〉中嘉年華式的各言說繽紛雜陳、交相銷抵愛爾蘭民族主義 霸權言說，〈瑙西卡〉亦藉形式的相對化銷解維多利亞式及父權架構的詮釋霸 權,兩者均為喬伊斯洞燭世紀之交愛爾蘭在想像層次上抵殖民的可能性。This project proposes to investigate James Joyce‘s Ulysses, in particular chapter 13 “Nausicaa,” in the light of Jacques Derrida’s work on “postcards” with the aim of corroborating that, less than the art of painting as Joyce himself maps out in his scheme for this chapter, “Nausicaa” bears hallmarks of a postcard with its message or signification left open and floating for instant as well as mass consumption. The casting of Gerty MacDowell in “Nausicaa” is biographically established to be based on Marthe Fleischmann whom Joyce met in Zurich and whom he sent in 1918, among other letters, a postcard addressed to “Nausikaa,” signed “Odysseus” (Letters II 426-36). Joyce‘s desire for Fleischmann is arguably reinscribed but then volatilized onto the narrator’s desire for Gerty in “Nausicaa.” Bloom‘s clandestine letter correspondence to Martha Clifford in the false name of Henry Flower already bears witness to Joyce’s keen interest in exploring the disguise/disclosure; elsewhere/here; or absence/presence dialectics in the novel Ulysses. Denis Breen‘s receiving a putative libelous postcard bearing the words of “U.P.: up” readily circulating among Dubliners on July 16, 1904 and the sailor D. B. Murphy in the cabmen’s shelter bluffing about South American cannibals on the proof of a postcard from Bolivia are other distinguished examples in Ulysses of the prominence of letters and postcards circulating and thereby disseminating occult desires as well as messages in modern cities like Dublin. The unpredictable and wayward paths these letters and especially postcards take suggest the fate of the logocentric/patriarchal writing pen of Joyce’s (or of his various writer‘s personae in the novel); namely, the supposedly-known and -established center is inevitably always already dislocated. Similarly, “Nausicaa,” if read as a postcard, exposes and circulates the Victorian- and patriarchal-underwritten desire eager to typecast the lower-middle class Gerty onto the dual roles of the angel in the house and the aristocratic femme fatale. While enframed by the male gaze of the Joycean narrator’s desire, “Nausicaa” nonetheless reflects back (after all, voyeurism works both on Gerty, Bloom, and by inference, the readers), implicates, and finally subverts the authoring stance and authority--thus de-“singular”-izing the name of the author. By drawing on Derrida‘s The Postcard (1987), I’d like to argue that the messages of “Nausicaa,” like those of a postcard, are both exposed to the eyes of the beholders as well as encoded for deciphering by their recipients. In other words, they are located both inside and outside--or rather “entre,” in-between--the dominant discourses seeking to inscribe the text of “Nausicaa.” Such slippery and protean stylistic display and performance, I would continue to argue, are Joyce‘s feat of derestricting and thus de-colonizing the discursive hegemony of the sort already evinced in that (i.e. the nationalistic-political brand) of “Cyclops.” Consequently, “Cyclops” and “Nausicaa” can be pair chapters exploring from different angles the volatile textual force and performativity embodying no less strength than that of politics. I’d like to confirm that these two chapters are Joyce‘s way to enact verbal/textual maneuvers pertaining to decolonization in politics