時裝樣式、穿衣風格的變化與著衣人之個性、職業、及人生觀相互對照，而著裝標準（dress codes）也因此成了普遍存在之社會符碼，在此用以解構、閱讀未以文字表述的種種文化樣貌。衣服是身體的另類展現場域，與心智狀態相互指涉；換言之，服飾與穿衣風格反射特定時空的身體姿態與思想自覺，亦承載社會結構中的權力轉移與盛衰沈浮。文學作品中的時裝書寫（vetement-ecrit）除了凸顯角色人物特徵，也形塑構築某一獨特時代風尚之知識型（episteme）。流行知識（popular knowledge）的建立除了彰顯城市都會化現象與其現代性精神，更可藉以揭示流行消費的神話運作與意識型態。當今流行論述（the fashion discourse）推演時裝演變歷史及展現工業時代後之現代化生活；抑或，文學作品中以大都會如美國紐約市為故事發生之背景地點，衣服演變與日益理性化的城市發展劃分了傳統與前衛。法國文化研究學者羅蘭．巴特（Roland Barthes）應用他在語言學和符號學（semiology）方面的專門知識，將流行服裝轉換為一種書寫服裝（“written clothing” or the clothing description）的語言來分析，作為製造意義的符號生產系統；雖然流行體系與時尚論述本身具有相當明確的商業性本質，其功能不僅提供一種複製現實生活的樣式，更是傳播流行神話的機器系統。書寫服裝提供如同語言學中的敘述結構，是文化大體制下被召喚分析的客體。正因受經濟、社會、心理、政治、或傳統等脈絡影響，服裝書寫不僅反映字裡行間所指渉的文化現象，也表達特定時空生活中的各種景像。然而，高科技與工業發展改變藝術文化的生產方式，機械如電視或電影複製藝術（品），改變了當代時尚的美學觀。流行商品於商業化時代所建構的美學標準下是否為美的物件，令人趨之若鶩？透過影像及媒體的後製處理，名人與流行服飾（商品）結合所創造的虛擬情境，更因視覺刺激而加速消費大眾對時尚的崇拜及購買；穿戴流行時裝配件的電視電影明星於銀幕及表演舞台秀出奢華繽紛的都會生活，挑逗人們的視覺感官。有趣的是，在此被商品化的明星客體反成為決定服裝流行趨勢的品味主體。

    本論文處理三本英美暢銷小說，分別為肯達絲‧布希尼爾（Candace Bushnell）的《慾望城市》（Sex and the City）、蘇菲‧金斯拉（Sophie Kinsella）的《購物狂的異想世界》（Confessions of a Shopaholic）及蘿倫‧維斯柏傑（Lauren Weisberger）的《穿著Prada的惡魔》（The Devil Wears Prada）。小說中用以描繪時裝及人物穿衣風格的文字為本論文的分析客體，此具意義的符號及象徵似的敘述文字，交織出文化歷史及語言的影響，讓本文開展時尚論述和各類知識型以及區分出傳統與現代等不同的可能性。知識型之間的斷裂指出城市生活的現代性精神，而時尚書寫更體現社會活動的各式實踐。論文結構主要分為序論、三個主要章節及結論。序論開始於意圖陳述，嘗試探究如何以學術理論閱讀小說文本中之服裝的描述，最後結束於方法論的運用說明。結論則重新檢視各個主要章節之內容，也總結三本小說中之服裝書寫如何建構時尚知識型、以及城市於時尚論述的洪流中與現代性的關係。

    本論文的第一章起始於羅蘭‧巴特的《流行體系》（The Fashion System）之閱讀與剖析，意圖將巴特所創造之書寫服裝一詞與其文化意涵應用於解讀《慾望城市》、《購物狂的異想世界》及《穿著Prada的惡魔》，藉由該詞為符號的指渉及聯想，使小說人物的外表與穿衣風格揭露未被寫出或隱藏之訊息。第二章以華特‧班雅明（Walter Benjamin）的「機械複製時代的藝術作品」一文探討名牌商品、靈韻（aura）與美學之間的關連；換言之，因電影科技的出現，美學論點與媒體理論則用以解釋因新的藝術生產方式所衍生之時尚觀及無所不在的商品置入性行銷。第二章的第二部分將時尚的概念結合蓋‧狄博（Guy Debord）的「奇觀社會」（“spectacle”）與法國哲學家‧布希亞（Jean Baudrillard）之「擬像」（“simulacrum”），直指時尚（“fashion”）創造出「虛」的商品化世界。論文的第三章所探討之知識型概念衍生自米歇爾‧傅柯的《事物的秩序》（The Order of Things）。哈伯瑪斯（Jurgen Habermas）指出現代性實為啟蒙時期的產物，代表自由、正義及理性的社會機制。在本文中，布希尼爾、金斯拉、及維斯柏傑的三本小說中，服飾（時裝）書寫與城市的印象構築當代的知識結構，其所描繪的時尚世界與現代性的精神塑造了城市的形象，同時也指渉現實世界中具有象徵特色的現代性。

Various performances of personality, profession, and attitude toward the world are often reflected in clothing styles.  For most situations, there are dress codes, even if they are unspoken.  In literary works, descriptions of dress portray both characters and the fashion of a particular time period.  Roland Barthes, via semiology, regards vetement-ecrit (“written” clothing, clothing described in print literature) as significant objects in a linguistic system.  Such literary accounts of dressing styles offer an approach to the establishment of popular knowledge during a particular era in that they are symbolically converted into a language, like a literary narrative, which functions as a cultural discourse transmitting fashion messages and driving consumer purchasing.  Except for protection, clothing in the age of consumption is generally considered a commercialized commodity to be marketed and sold.  It represents the concept of fashion and its related issues are influenced by capitalistic fetishism.  With the rise of advanced technological methods of reproducibility, the described garment in a literary work is adapted for mass media, helping to build up a new episteme of fashion as it is presented in the context of an urban aesthetic.  With this in mind, it is also essential to identify measurements that determine the arrangement of characteristics in this episteme.  Ultimately, the urban lifestyle and clothing styles found there both relate to and embrace the spirit of modernity. 

     My dissertation attempts to study the interactive influence between the fashion knowledge structure, or mode of being, and social practices in the city by illustrating clothing described in Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City, Sophie Kinsella’s Confessions of a Shopaholic, and Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil Wears Prada.  This doctoral dissertation includes an introduction, a main body of three chapters, and a conclusion.  The introduction begins with a statement of purpose and introduces the main applied theories of the following three chapters.  Cross-references between the three stories and my methodology are briefly summarized.  The final part of this dissertation is a conclusion which sums up and reviews the content of each of the three chapters, restating how the episteme of fashion is constructed through “written” clothing in each novel, and how cities in fashion discourse represent modernity. 

     The first chapter proposes a synthetic reading of defining clothing descriptions in Roland Barthes’ The Fashion System, then illustrates the descriptions of dressing styles found in Sex and the City, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and The Devil Wears Prada.  The specific definition of described clothing is given to demonstrate how appearances of characters in fiction reveal something unwritten and unsaid.  In the second chapter, the trendy commodity is connected to the concept of aura in Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.”  Aesthetics and media theory are used to analyze reciprocal influences between fashion and commodity marketing on movie and television screens.  Chapter Two then concludes with a discussion on Jean Baudrillard’s simulacrum and Guy Debord’s theory of “spectacle.”  In the third chapter, the concept of episteme is explored by studying Michel Foucault’s The Order of Things.  From this perspective, clothing descriptions in literature and images of the city construct the relevant knowledge structure of the day and signify a symbolic characteristic of modernity in the real world.  Modernity, as observed by Jurgen Habermas, is a product of Enlightenment consciousness of a free and just society guided by the light of reason.  In this way therefore, and in terms of the three novels written by Bushnell, Kinsella, and Weisberger respectively, to connect Fashion with modernity is to characterize the city.

Introduction  ……………………………………………………….........…………   1

Chapter One: Vetement-ecrit and Fashion Discourse.............................  32

Chapter Two: Aesthetics and Commercialized Fashion
 in the Age of Technological (Digital) Reproducibility ................................88

Chapter Three: Fashionable Cities: Epistemological Mode of 
    Being and Modernity in the Age of Consumption  ...................................  145

Conclusion………………………………………………………………….…  195

Works Cited …………………………………………………………….…….  209

Appendix: Web Publications …………………………………...………………  220

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