洁净与规训:颓废派的污垢观与维多利亚时期的医学话语

Purity and Discipline:Decadents'Perception of Dirt and Victorian Medical Discourse

污垢一词常被用来贬低颓废主义,而颓废派在作品中赋予污垢积极的形象。这场话语交锋离不开人们对污垢的文化想象。从道格拉斯的人类学研究出发,结合福柯的医学话语理论,可以看出,污垢时常脱离细菌学的范畴,呈现出文化想象的维度——污垢即位置不当的东西,它是秩序系统排异的产物。维多利亚时期的医学话语建立在理性/非理性、男性/女性、西方/东方的暴力等级秩序上,曾为父权制与帝国主义提供“科学”依据。洁净观依附于医学话语的秩序系统,渗透到社会话语实践中,被视为天然的、绝对的、永恒的,生成了隐秘的规训机制,并增加了民族与个体自我形塑的焦虑感。颓废派以反向话语在作品中建构污垢的积极内涵,体现了他们反抗规训的激进文化立场。

“Dirt” was often used to demean Decadence, whereas Decadents cast it in a positive light. This discourse clash is inseparable from people's cultural imagination of dirt. In view of Douglas' anthropological study and Foucault's theory of medical discourse,it's apparent that dirt often transcends bacteriology, assuming a dimension of cultural imagination—dirt is matter out of place, a product rejected by a system of order. Victorian medical discourse is characterized by a violent hierarchy of rationality/irrationality,masculinity/femininity, and West/East. It was used to justify patriarchy and imperialism “scientifically.” The notion of purity, as part of the hierarchical system of medical discourse,permeated social discourse. It was regarded as natural, absolute, and eternal, generating covert discipline mechanisms. It also heightened anxiety about self-fashioning for both the nation and individuals. In their works, Decadents construct positive connotations for dirt as reverse discourse that reflects a radical cultural stance in revolt against discipline.