| 摘要: | Hysteria, traditionally linked to mental illness and gendered social constructs, is redefined in this paper through the concepts of the hysterical body and hysterical condition. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze's analysis of the twentieth-century painter Francis Bacon in The Logic of Sensation, this paper offers a new perspective on hysteria, focusing not on its sociocultural or gendered dimensions but on its nature as an intense bodily experience. Hysteria, in this sense, is characterized by overwhelming forces and sensations that verge on the terrifying. It extends beyond the framework of mental disorder, manifesting instead as an intense force arising both internally and externally. The internal forces of the body reveal themselves through spontaneous physical reactions such as vertigo, convulsions, shuddering, spasms, vomiting, and screaming. External forces on the body, meanwhile, act like waves that flow through the body, provoking involuntary responses before conscious awareness can intervene. Poe's horror tales intricately depict these forces and their effects, offering a fertile ground for exploring the movements of sensation and hysteria within his narratives. The latter part of this paper delves into Poe's nuanced portrayal of forces and sensations in "Berenice" and "The Pit and the Pendulum," examining how these narratives vividly render the complexities of the hysterical body and the hysterical condition. By incorporating a Deleuzian perspective, the analysis illuminates how Poe's texts convey the transformation of "abjection into splendor" and the experience of life's horror as "a very pure and very intense life," thereby highlighting the aesthetic depth of hysteria in his works. |
