| Summary: | 碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 大眾傳播學研究所 === 98 === This paper focuses on the novel “ The Butcher’s Wife” and its film adaptation, using the methods of narrative paradigm and “habitus” to try to determine the difference between strategies of subversion and the kind of approaches we see at work in commercial pictures. This paper also offers views on the dynamic spectrum of film and literature from various interpretations.
Much controversy surrounds “The Butcher’s Wife,” and this brings me to think about the symbolic meaning of strategies of subversion as presented in the so called popular media of our time. Meanwhile, differences between texts become clear not only in features, but probably also in audience reaction, which depicts the “habitus” of Taiwan culture.
Research findings show three spaces in texts. First, subversion space reveals the contrast of plot from the “feminist” prospective, which represents the introspection of morality. As for film, if the story is based on a particular social reality with reasonable adjustments of the elements of narrative, and if it offers the appropriate techniques, it will persuade the audience.
Secondly, space in imagination shows particular characteristics in the novel, which provide the dream realm and presence of evil spirits to emphasize a process of inference. But overusing elements of subversion may omit or distort the dimension of “fact.” This particular film represents a complicated dilemma, and although it does make a point about contemporary aesthetics, it appears short of introspection in regard to the killing of the husband.
Thirdly, space of hiding allows us to observe that the novel follows the feminist viewpoint; using nature’s instinct of hunger as a substitute for maternity, in contrast with the patriarchy, which oppresses women. On the other hand, body and sound with special characteristics in the film connect with audience reaction in a straight forward manner, misplacing the causal relation in the narrative, which becomes a hidden place for the “fact.”
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