本論文分析劇作家馬汀麥當納的劇本《枕頭人》中的「說故事」與「自我欺騙」，論證「說故事」提供本劇四位主要角色自我欺騙式的慰藉，使其得以處理創傷和逃避現實。說故事行為裡的想像和詮釋給說者及聽者／讀者機會去重新建立和詮釋悲慘過去，但同時也讓他們陷入自我欺騙的狀態及真實虛幻交錯的混亂，因為說故事可能使他們開始否認進而承認某種身分，甚而處於特定的故事情節結構，即使面對創傷也能獲得自我安慰。論文第二章檢視卡初利安的自我欺騙。卡初力安是劇中的主要說故事者。此章剖析他如何埋頭於自己創造的想像空間，並將過去的傷痛回憶轉化成自己能接受的故事情節。第三章剖析其他三位聽故事者——麥可、塔帕斯基，和艾瑞爾——的自我欺騙。此章論證聽／讀故事亦造成自我欺騙式的安慰。這三人靠詮釋故事為創傷取得自我安慰的解釋，雖然此舉仍然只是對過去的自我欺騙和逃避，但讓他們可以稍微諒解過去，面對現在。說故事行為和自我欺騙深深影響劇中四位角色，並成為他們自我安慰的方法。雖然自我欺騙蒙蔽他們，使他們無視真正的現實，當他們往回看不忍卒睹的過去時，自我欺騙卻可以稍微抒解他們的傷口。 / This thesis analyzes storytelling and self-deception in Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman, contending that storytelling provides the four main characters in The Pillowman with self-deceptive relief of dealing with their traumas and evading the reality. With the potential of imagination and interpretation, storytelling not only grants storytellers and story-listeners/readers a chance to reconstruct and reinterpret their distressing past, but it also throws them in a state of self-deception and confusion of the interpenetration of reality and fiction when they start to disavow and avow a certain type of identity and live in a specific plot structure that can soothe themselves from their traumas. Examining Katurian, the main storyteller in this play, Chapter Two of the thesis argues that as a storyteller/story-writer, Katurian falls into self-deception which buries himself into an imaginary space he creates and which consoles himself by transforming those agonizing recollections into the versions he can accept. Chapter Three tackles the other three story-listeners, Michal, Tupolski, and Ariel, to argue that in a way, storytelling leads to self-deceptive relief because it provides them with self-consoling explanations for their past to face with their present even though the three characters are trapped in their self-deception and self-evasion in the confrontation with their traumas. Thus, storytelling and self-deception deeply affect the four characters and serve as self-consolation for them. Although self-deception blocks their eyes to see reality, it comforts them to some degrees when they look back to their past.

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