| 摘要: | 本論文針對奧賽羅中出現的獸性進行研究。在第一章裡，我引用了漢特、紐曼與歐波立的許多論證闡述奧賽羅的獸性，即他野性的源頭和相異的族類使他自然在白性霸權的社會成為一個野蠻的化外者。我做出兩個結論，第一我認為在奧賽羅中頻頻出現獸性的片段表現了當代誤以黑人為野獸的思維，第二我提出依阿高道出了英國伊利莎白時期對摩爾人的刻版成見，而依阿高的種族言論正引出野獸奧賽羅的出現。
在第二章裡，我試著論證依阿高如何使用他操縱的言語來破壞他的對談者。我也引用了亞歷山卓 G. 崗索拉對奧賽羅中語言模式的研究來指出依阿高口中「獸性誕生」（monstrous birth）在全劇中的地位。在引論了奧賽羅的獸性是依阿高動物化言語的結果後，在第三章我進一步回歸探究依阿高的獸性。在這一章內，亞德曼與史密斯關於黑白種族展演（racial performance）的思想幫助了我，而帶出了我最後的結論：藉著賦予依阿高許多摩爾人的特質，莎士比亞使這個角色成為異邦的野獸，不斷的威嚇、威脅人類文明。
This thesis offers a critical study to the monstrosity in Othello. In the first chapter, I use Hunter’s, Newman’s, and Aubrey’s works to illustrate Othello’s monstrosity: his savage origin and alien race would immediately mark him as a barbarian outcast in the white dominated society. And finally I come to two crucial conclusions: first, I think the frequent references to monstrosity in Othello fit the popular imagination in associating blacks with monsters in that time, and second, I argue that Iago voices the Elizabethan’s stock prejudices against the Moors, and Iago’s racial discourse directly leads to the birth of the monster Othello.
In my second chapter, I try to unfold how Iago uses his manipulative language, his mental production, to corrupt his interlocutors. And I borrow Alexander G. Gonzalez’s study of the language pattern in Othello, in order to show how Iago’s favorite metaphor “monstrous birth” works throughout the play. After probing how Othello’s monstrosity and barbarism are chiefly bestowed by Iago’s deliberate animalizing language, I make an attempt to inquire into Iago’s monstrosity in chapter three. In this chapter, Adelman and Smith’s thoughts particularly enlighten me, especially in their study upon the exchange of racial performances between blacks and whites. And I conclude that by endowing Iago with the Moor’s traits, Shakespeare characterized this role with many monstrous aspects, making him less a human yet more a monster alienated from society, and forming him as someone who keeps threatening, mocking, and trivializing the splendor of human civilization. |
