提姆‧歐布萊恩《負荷》中的"三類講說" : 創傷治療、無聲語言、敘事美學
Three Discourses in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried: Traumatic Therapy, Inaudible Words, and Aesthetics

摘要
提姆‧歐布萊恩的《負荷》是描寫一羣經歷越戰的士兵在戰爭中及戰爭前後內在心理的一部小說。雖然這是一本以戰爭為題材的小說，但我們似乎感覺不到血腥與殘暴的氛圍，因為在小說的內容裡，不見英雄主義的擴張，刑拷的情節與殺戮的場景，作者的講述方式另讀者著迷。然而，當我們專注於作者的講說時，我們發現諾曼‧包克(Norman Bowker)正忍受著無法陳訴戰爭創傷的痛苦與折磨，包克不間斷的開車環繞著湖泊十二次，沒有勇氣向任何人講述他的戰爭故事，導致最後走向自殺一途。說出自己的戰爭創傷具有自我「創傷治療」的功能，因為創傷須要語言來達到「發洩」的作用，讓他/她在面對創傷情緒累積過剩之時，可以遠離創傷無助感。假如包克能說出他的創傷重擔，他的命運也許就會有所不同。而小說中的另一位角色，提姆‧歐布萊恩(Tim O’Brien)則是遭遇「無聲言語」(或稱「凝視的講述」)之苦。「凝視的講述」來自於「大他者」的意志－「超我」或作者的良心，歐布萊恩曾嘗試當一位逃兵，因為加入越戰違背了他的意志，但「超我」的權威是如此的強大，以致歐布萊恩最終還是加入了戰爭。在閱讀這部小說時，我們不自覺的順應作者的欲望，自在且感性的跟隨著作者，去感受小說中的每一章節，作者運用敘事的藝術帶著我們去經歷戰爭中的光明面，像是愛、友誼及情感。倚賴「感性的戰爭講述」技巧，作者讓戰爭小說不感沉重。感性的戰爭講述降低了我們的理性並喚起我們的感性，它讓讀者對戰爭小說較不感畏懼，且更有意願開書閱讀。但以戰爭為題材的小說終究無法達到提昇讀者的目的，因為戰爭與道德無關。畢竟，這是一部關於歷史創傷的戰地小說。

關鍵詞：創傷治療，發洩，凝視的講述，大他者，超我，感性的戰爭講述

Abstract
Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a war novel describing the story as well as the inner psyche of a group of soldiers during and after the Vietnam War. Although this is a war novel, it is neither bloody nor violent. There are no great acts of heroism, senses of torture, or scenes of slaughter. However, while we are drawn in by the author’s story, we find that one of the soldiers, Norman Bowker, is suffering from the pain of being unable to speak about the horrors of war that he has witnessed. Norman drives around the lake twelve times, has no capacity to talk about his war story with others, and commits suicide in the end. Speaking out about war traumatic experiences serves as a kind of traumatic therapy because a traumatic situation can be discharged through language, making it possible to avoid feelings of helplessness in the face of an accumulation of excitation. If Bowker could speak out his traumatic burden, his destiny might have been different. Tim O’Brien, another character who shares the author’s name suffers from the inaudible words we can term gaze-discourses deriving from his conscience and the will of the Other－the superego. He once tried to be a draft-dodger, as he disagreed with the Vietnam War, yet the superego is so powerful that O’Brien eventually joins the war. When reading this war novel, we naturally let the author guide us with his desires, and we freely follow him to feel the scenes and emotions conveyed in every chapter. He takes us to experience the love, friendship, and emotions with his narrative art in this war story. Using a Sentimental War Discourse, the author creates a war novel that is not so heavy that helps alleviative our fears and makes us want to read more of this war novel. Nevertheless, it is not necessarily effective at actually uplifting readers, as this is irrelevant to the moral of the story. After all, it is a war novel about historical trauma.
Keywords: traumatic therapy, discharge, gaze-discourses, the Other, the superego, Sentimental War Discourse

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