「殺夫」論

Abstract

Sha Fu (husband murdering), a novel written in 1982 by Li Ang, an active woman novelist of Taiwan, has been translated into several languages. The book has shocked the world; the heroine in the story kills her husband for his abusive sexual behaviors. "Sha Fu" is often regarded as a Feminist novel. But If we take some peculiar images of "Sha Fu" into account, the conventional reading does not seem to be incisive enough. The aim of this paper is to consider these peculiar images and revaluate the nature "Sha Fu" and some of its implications. In the story the most remarkable characteristic of the murder is that, at the very moment of the act, the wife imagines herself not killing her husband but butchering a pig. Contrary to popular opinions, this odd vision seems to suggest the murder being more than a revenge on her violent husband. It's related to a few sexual images threading throughout the entire novel. First, let us examine the wife's sexual consciousness by looking at her dreams. From menarche until marriage, she has been having the dream of a large pillar and some blood. And after marriage, her dreams start to be consisted of food and the same kind of blood. It seems the pillar is not only a symbol of penis but also represents the pillar to which her mother was tied when raped by a soldier. Both descriptions of the blood are thick and dark red, reminiscent of her own menstruation and the blood oozing from pig dishes, both of which she dreads. In contrast to the wife, the husband gets pleasure from butchering pigs. Seeing blood splashing out of the neck of a pig gives him the same pleasure he gets from sex. In the story whenever the husband rapes his wife, he feels pleasure and the image of splashing blood comes to mind. The wife, however, is petrified and sees, instead of fresh blood, blood that is thick and dark red. Their emotions and mental images form a stark contrast. At the scene of murder to the tail end of the story, the image of splashing fresh blood emerges in the wife's mind for the very first time. During the murder she sees the face of the soldier, then fresh blood gushing out of a pig's neck. The blood then suddenly transforms into the pillar which has repeatedly appeared in her dreams. At last the pillar changes back into fresh blood and splashes towards all directions. After cutting her husband's body into pieces, she cooks for herself, eats until full, and sleeps soundly without any nightmares concerning the dark red blood. "Sha Fu" is not a mere Feminist novel, given the images of blood and the pig. As Feminist ideology develops over the years, the conventional aim that's been attributed to this book has lost its power. In "Sha Fu", Li Ang not only writes from a traditional feminist perspective but also vividly described the primitive nature of mankind, which is strongly tied to sexual desires. "Sha Fu" has made a breakthrough in Feminist literature and created another possible writing path for future feminist writers.