i
自從一八八六年卡爾建造第一部汽車，汽車已然是現代生活必不可少之
物。然而，隨著汽車工業的發展，高速度及繁重的交通量使意外事故發生率日趨
攀升。二十世紀文學作品中，車禍意象的運用十分普遍。情節轉折處，總要經歷
突如其來的車禍，才帶來突破性的發展。因此，在視車禍為文學符號的前提下，
筆者將從前衛派的藝術觀點來探究小說Crash 中車禍所隱含的社會批判力量。本
文即要視車禍事件（Ｃrash）為一種文學意象，從前衛派藝術觀點來探討城市文
學中，車禍所造成David Frisby 在fragmetns of modernity 一書中所希冀以美
學觀來闡明的現代性（modernite），希望能以此一窺現代人類存在意義。我論文
最根源的問題在於，現代科技災難之衝擊對人的哲學、美學意義為何？企圖提供
生活於現代社會的我們，另一思考的方向。
現代追求速度、效率的科技企圖延伸人類感官。這種野心所造成刺激場景
對人類來說是狂喜亦或是毀滅？科技帶來令人難以抗拒的吸引力，其震撼感
（crash）引導人類瀕臨死亡邊緣，其中包含人類心理、感官的錯置
(malposition)，但是，在這種錯置、擾亂（derange）中，卻引發無限豐富的想
像與生命力：在不斷模擬死亡衝擊的過程中，儼然滿足求死天性的宣洩，也滿足
身體的孔道conduct 乞求與外界聯繫、溝通的目的。就像David Cronenberg 所
執導的電影Crash 中，將車禍視為是性慾的釋放。死亡成為再生的孔道。當然，
ii
我們不能只將這種解釋視為難以接受，瘋狂與無稽之談。這種衝擊，觸及了人類
本性中的死亡天性death instinct：對死亡的懼怕、抗拒，透過不斷檢視著死
亡與似乎與之矛盾的求死的意念之間，呼應相通。唯有這種破壞才能達成一種身
體本能需要與世界聯繫的企圖。由身體的時空錯置，involute 強大衝擊帶我們
進入生死邊緣，在這模糊地帶，擺脫一切理性、道德的束縛。另一方面，也批判
性的重新檢視長久以來物化的自我。最後，在夢般的虛擬空間，才能打破戀物崇
拜，再度感受肉體在物質社會的真實存在。由此，反思現代「身體」，如傅科所
說，「『強取』漸漸不再是權力的主要形式．．．但是，這可不的殺人權力---也
取正因此他才能厚顏無恥的擴大自己的範圍---現在便成了積極影響生命、管理
生命、提高生命價值、繁殖生命、準確控制生命；並對生命進行整體調節權力的
補充」（136-137）。唯有Crash 的這種侵略aggression 才能揭露這種被建構的
身體觀，也能批判那長久以來已被認可的暴力。在面對死亡的剎那，能量的釋放
是超乎想像：根源於身體有機的一種想像---生與死的掙扎與循環---正在此刻擁
抱我們。
本文分為三個章節：第一章震撼：其中不僅要闡明衝擊的內容，也要由街
道的場域精神、車體的社會意義，進而發現車禍意象的超現實藝術美學。第二章
反思的殘象：由前衛派藝術中的拼貼（montage）技巧，來探討文學語言中象徵
意義的飄浮不定。意指與意符的游離，過去與現在的重逢的衝擊中，Benjamine
所說的「褻瀆的啟發」在此發光照耀;第三章結合的身體：科技的想像力，遠超
越肉體與物質。在車禍中，肉身與金屬的融合是何等令人痛心的結合中，新的性
學由此誕生。生命的循環，在人與金屬的溝通中，得以完成。

When Karl Benz built the world’s first successful petrol-driven vehicle, the car
has brought with it a train of hazards and disasters, from the congestion of city to the
serious injury and deaths of millions of people. As J. G. Ballard says, “The car crash
is the most dramatic event in most people’s lives apart from tier own deaths, and for
many the two will coincide” (Ballard, 263). Most urban literary works emphasize the
feeling of isolation that exists among people living in the city. However, contrary to
popular belief, Ballard’s novel encourages us to get rid of the restrictions in urban
settings and to develop our own fascination. For example, cars were once regarded as
a symbol of advanced technology while Ballard uses crash as a symbol of the
contemporary technology. He combines crash and sex, life and death. In this way, the
imaginary, the symbolic and the real are interwoven together. Ballard’s totally
extreme interpretation of the most common metropolitan image, crash, astonishes me
4
so much that, for a long time, I still cannot accept this daring association.
Nevertheless, like Thomas H. Huxley says, “It is customary fate of new truths to
begin as heresies and to end as superstitions.” In order to grasp the true meaning of
metropolitans’ existence, it is necessary for us to experience the shock coming along
with car crashes. From avant-garde perspective, shocking experience, such as car
crashes, devastates the praxis in all aspects of bourgeois society. Because of the
astonishing effect, Ballard succeeds in taking thought to the limits of comprehension
to contest systematic codes of academic inscription.
Therefore, my main concern lies in this symbolism of crash. I intend to examine
the modern aestheticism in J. G. Ballard’s novel as well as David Cronenberg’s movie,
Crash, in terms of the avant-gardiste perspective, which prefers to lead art back into
social praxis. In my opinion, the shock, which this film agitates, comes not only from
a stout resistance to alarming eroticism but from Walter Benjamin''s “profane
illumination” — the “secret bond that determines their inner and perhaps also their
outer lives” (Reflection, 181). The term “Crash” represent s a technological lure, which
causes people''s spiritual and physical conflicts in modern times. I think it can help us
figure out the "crash," a conduit, a passage, which makes the confluence of body and
technology possible. By scrutinizing “crash”, the struggle between the corporeal body
and technological body in the twentieth century, in my opinion, doesn''t bring us
damage but the meaning of ex-sistence.
The body text of my thesis, in the main, is divided into three chapters, which
stand for treble mental transport in aestheticism. Chapter One: The Shock: It must be
broken. Chapter Two is Reflective Afterimages: it must not bear having been broken
and Chapter 3. The inosculated body: it must seem to have been mended. The
subtitles of each chapters separately accord with Harold Bloom''s triple rhythm---It
must be broken; it must not bear having been broken; it must seem to have been
mended---, which is used to explicate American poetry since Emerson. Although I
don''t agree to Bloom''s roughly collected homogenization of the 20th century
American poetry, his musicalization of three mental-phases hits the point of my each
chapter.

Abstract (Chinese)…………………………………………………………………..i
Abstract (English). ………………………………………………………………...iii
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………v
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………1
Chapter One
The Shock: It must be broken………………………………………………………6
Chapter Two
Reflective Afterimages: it must not bear having been broken……………………25
Chapter Three
The Inosculated Body: it must seem to have been mended………………………45
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………68
Works Cited………………………………………………………………………..72

79
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