여성의 신체에 대한 담론의 구조

The Structure of Discourse about the Female Body: Focusing on Japanese Mythology and the Folklore of Patikulamanasikara

This article analyzes Japanese myths and tales that contain descriptions of women’s bodies, and examines the structures of distortion and alienation of women contained in them. In mythology, the bodies of the goddesses were thoroughly dismantled and mostly portrayed like those of animals. The goddesses were portrayed as objects of fear and loathing rather than divine and dignified beings. However, the goddesses in mythology were at least portrayed as being who voiced anger and cursed at the male gods who insulted them. On the other hand, in the medieval folklore of Patikulamanasikara, voices of women who have been reduced to the tools of aesthetic practices are not fully revealed. Rather, the folklore alienates the women themselves, the owners of the bodies, by misleadingly claiming that the women participate voluntarily in the process of turning their body into tools. In the folklore of Patikulamanasikara, the main narratives are mostly elite men, and the female discourse in the folklore has a lasting influence on the subsequent literature, so it can be said that it functioned as a cultural power to oppress women.

本稿では女性の身体に関する表現が赤裸々に記されている日本の神話と中世の不淨觀説話を分析し、女性の身体をめぐる言説の構造を考察した。神話の中で女神の身体は隈無く解体され、動物化されている。女神は聖なる尊い存在というより恐怖や嫌悪の対象として画かれていた。しかし神話の中の女神はせめて自分を侮辱した相手に憤り、呪いをかけている。それに反して女性の身体を修行の方便とした不淨觀説話において當事者の女性の声はほとんど現れていない。かえって説話の中の女性は自らすすんで男性僧侶の不淨觀の修行精進のために自分の身体を道具化し、協力する姿として画かれている。実際、体の主体である女性は自分の身体から疎外され、みずからの肉体を否定していると言わざるを得ない。エリート男性のまなざしから女性の身体を論ずる不淨觀説話の言説は神話における女性不浄観を継承し、一層強化したわけである。