DSpace collection: 第46卷第1期

The Virtual We: The Survivors, the Cities, and the Cosmos in Doris Lessing’s Shikasta

title: The Virtual We: The Survivors, the Cities, and the Cosmos in Doris Lessing’s Shikasta abstract: 在本論文中，我試著探索萊辛小說中並置古老城市與浩劫後未來城市的意圖。一個是遵循古老而僵化的殖民系統，另一個是對應直覺演化式的新設計，遠古幾何城市因含納異質元素而轉化成潛態化的浩劫後城市，而此城市又與希卡斯塔（地球）上的倖存者形成一種無法區辨的關係，這樣的關係使得兩者能進而與宇宙力量產生連結。事實上，城市與倖存者之間界線的消融有助於形成一種海納岩石、植物、猩猩、巨人、希卡斯塔人、加諾波人等概念的新的「眾我」。我將引用德勒茲與瓜特里對於知感與情感的看法去理解倖存者與城市之間的微妙關係，並且藉著城市演化的觀念，闡明萊辛的潛態宇宙觀，最終揭示啟動潛態宇宙進化的關鍵元素：全新的「眾我」。 In juxtaposing the ancient geometric cities, of old, static, colonial design, and the future post-catastrophic utopian cities, of new, intuitive, evolutionary design, Lessing highlights the transition from one to the other. The post-catastrophic cities and the Survivors form an indiscernible relationship and connect with the cosmic force, SOWF. The transition vividly maps the divergences and mutations of the Survivors and their becoming-city, envisioning the cross-fertilization between the two parties. The dissolving of boundaries between the cities and the Survivors facilitates the formation of a new virtual ＂we＂ that encompasses different beings such as stones, plants, apes, Giants, Shikastans, and even Canopeans and triggers the emergence of a virtual cosmos of multiplicity. Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts of perceptand affect promote understanding of how the Survivors, in the ＂virtual＂ act of rebuilding, evolve and ＂become the city＂ instead of monitoring the rebuilding via conscious implementation of an ＂actual＂ rigid cosmic Master Plan, highlight the divergences of the evolving cities, and reveal the formation of a new virtual ＂we,＂ a key element of the virtual cosmos of symbiotic evolution.

Illusion and the Self: Honglou Meng, Wilhelm Meister, and Bildungsroman

title: Illusion and the Self: Honglou Meng, Wilhelm Meister, and Bildungsroman abstract: 本文從西方“教育小說”或“成長小說”（Bildungsroman）理論的角度解讀《紅樓夢》，並將其與歌德的小說《威廉˙麥斯特》進行比較。《威廉˙麥斯特》初版於1795年，被廣泛看作“教育小說”的開山之作。本文比較的目的不是將西方理論強加于中文作品，而是期望從《紅樓夢》和它的社會與文化背景中分辨出一種尚未被察覺的“現代性”。大體而言，我認為《紅樓夢》與西方“教育小說”有美學上的共通性，因為兩者同樣表達了自我與社會之間一種難以解決的脫節關系，並通過這一結構呈現歷史中的文化錯位過程。在《紅樓夢》與《威廉˙麥斯特》之間，我們可以發現一系列關於這種內外衝突的相似主題，例如主人公天真的理想主義和藝術家氣質，在他愛情關系中社會與感情力量的對比，還有他相容了宿命論與諷刺性的神秘“啟蒙”過程。由於這兩部作品的成書時間大致相同，這些相似之處尤其值得注意。目前學界正在重築“早期現代性”的東方因素和建立“橫向彙通宏觀歷史觀”。在這種新知識視野中，我們應關注《紅樓夢》與《威廉˙麥斯特》這兩部東西敘事文學標誌性作品之間的相似結構。這種比較分析可以使一向以歐洲為中心的“教育小說”和與其相關的現代自我觀的課題更多元化，也可以在跨文化的角度下重新詮釋地域性的經典作品。 This essay offers a reading of the famous eighteenth-century Chinese novel Honglou Meng 紅樓夢 in light of theories about the European Bildungsroman and in comparison to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister's Years of Apprenticeship (Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre), which was first published in 1795 and is widely regarded as the seminal example of the Bildungsroman narrative form. The purpose of this comparative exercise is not about imposing Western theories upon Chinese texts, but about discerning an intellectually obscured form of ＂modernity＂ from Honglou Meng and the social and cultural contexts around it. In general, my argument is that Honglou Meng is aesthetically analogous to the European Bildungsroman in that it likewise dramatizes a problematic incommutability between the self and society, and in this manner crystallizes a larger process of cultural displacement. Between Honglou Meng and Wilhelm Meister one can indeed observe a set of striking parallels that all serve to manifest this inner-outer divide, such as the protagonist’s naive idealism and artistic temperament, a social-lyrical binary that characterizes his romantic interests, and his mystified ＂enlightenment＂ process that combines a sense of irony and a sense of fatalism. Considering that the two books are closely coeval, these similarities are especially remarkable. Given the emergent thesis of a re-Oriented ＂early modernity＂ and concurrent scholarly movements toward ＂horizontal integrative macrohistories,＂ attention to these structural resemblances between Honglou Meng and Wilhelm Meister-two literary landmarks in Chinese and Western narrative histories-can help pluralize theories of the Bildung-sroman and the related question of the modern self beyond the European trajectory, while reconfiguring the implications of these regionally canonized works in transcultural terms.

A Study of the Prose of Choong Yee Voon (Zhong Yiwen): A Case of a Malaysian Chinese Writer in Taiwan

title: A Study of the Prose of Choong Yee Voon (Zhong Yiwen): A Case of a Malaysian Chinese Writer in Taiwan abstract: 被譽為臺灣文學獎常勝軍的鐘怡雯(1969-)不僅成功立足異鄉，同時深得臺灣文壇與讀者的認可，確是一值得研究分析的旅台馬華作家個案。本文探討為何好些旅台馬華作家因國籍問題而難以融入臺灣文壇，然而鐘怡雯卻深受歡迎。外貌與文學創作才華固然對其知名度的提升有直接影響，更重要的是鐘怡雯善用個人複雜的身份與背景來超越國籍，既深入臺灣文學場域又根植大馬，同時又更進一步把文學觸鬚伸向國際文學舞臺。. Described as an ＂all-conquering＂ contestant in major Taiwanese literary award competitions for Taiwanese writers, Choong Yee Voon (1969-) presents an interesting case of a Malaysian Chinese immigrant writer in Taiwan, as she finds her foothold in a foreign land and wins the hearts of Taiwanese readers and the literary scene alike. While good looks and immense literary talents certainly contribute to her popularity, this paper investigates why is it that many other Malaysian Chinese writers see themselves as being discriminated against as facing discrimination in the Taiwanese literary scene due to their foreign nationality, while Choong, on the contrary, is embraced by readers and indigenous writers alike. This paper will show that Choong’s urge to utilize her multi-layered individual identity to transcend nationality shows her desire to not only blend into the Taiwanese literary scene, but also to maintain her roots in Malaysia, and to become part of the international writing scene.

Mythicizations of the Nationless: Hong Kong Spectral Temporality

title: Mythicizations of the Nationless: Hong Kong Spectral Temporality abstract: 本文以香港的後殖民性及國家觀念的內涵為依歸，從中探討鬼魅對時間重構及根源重塑在族群想像中的重要性。在香港，鬼魅及時空想像的延申，掙脫殖民地歷史及回歸後國家民族主義的牢籠。香港的敘事及論述，在鬼魅身上追蹤時間的足跡，修補歷史的斷裂，讓香港的故事，昇華至神話的境界。在去殖化的過程之下，在家與國的幻影之中，透現出屬於香港的時空構想。 Focusing on Hong Kong’s unique postcoloniality oscillating in between nationalization and nationlessness, this paper conceptualizes this particular tension as the perfect medium for materializing and valorizing specters to redeem temporality and to invent originality for a community. Delineating the temporalizations orchestrated via exorcism and clairvoyance, this exploration scrutinizes the correlations between communal imagination, spectrality and time to achieve a historical conglomeration mixed by facts and imagination of the city’s colonial past and the ongoing nationalization. Hong Kong spectrality, as temporalized by the clairvoyant, serves as a critique against the universality of nationalism with its unique temporal configuration and interrogates the legitimacy of colonial and postcolonial histories. To scrutinize Hong Kong mythicizations is also to trace the paths where ghosts are summoned and materialized in order to reclaim a sense of originality and to redeem a temporal experience peculiarly Hong Kong, which also foregrounds the city’s cultural alterity in the processes of decolonization and nationalization among its Asian neighbors.

Relational Interracialism and the American Dream of Race in Ha Jin’s A Free Life

title: Relational Interracialism and the American Dream of Race in Ha Jin’s A Free Life abstract: 此千禧年之際已預言理論與文學研究跨種族的趨勢。本文主要以哈金的小說《自由生活》、其他小說與詩為例，認為種族和諧是哈金等美國作家在故事與詩中探討美國夢的種族關係。以約翰．E．法爾利的四個種族理論模式，本文分析哈金的小說《自由生活》中分工、收養、羅曼史與友情等合作的種族關係，另提出自創的「關係跨種族主義」一詞，此主義認為將種族置於種族間看待為一種可行的理論。關係跨種族主義探究種族間的關係，提出多元文化主義在實施上的修正，將種族間的關係奠基於種族間的合作與文化的相互影響，且將衝突限制於可解決的範圍內。《自由生活》開始建造與現代人際關係與情感有關的美國夢，以合作與相互影響取代衝突來定義種族關係，其中合作重於衝突。探討的作品包括哈金的《自由生活》、《南京安魂曲》、《背叛指南》與詩歌，與約翰．岡田的《雙不男孩》，兩位作家描繪的未來遠景。 Critical discussions in the new millennium have augured an interracial turn in both theories and literary scholarship. This paper argues that interracial harmony is the American dream of racial relationships that American writers, including Ha Jin, explore in literary narratives and poetry, and I will illustrate this American dream of interracial harmony with his novel A Free Life and examples from other novels and poems. Through four of John E. Farley’s models of racial theories this paper analyzes collaborative interracial relationships in the division of labor, adoption, romance, and friendship in Ha Jin’s novel A Free Life, while advancing a relational interracialism, a term I coined as a viable theoretical grappling with the subject of race between races. Relational interracialism studies the relationality between races and suggests that multiculturalism in practice can be revised so that interraciality is premised on interracial cooperation and cultural infiltration with conflicts constrained within a resolvable range. A Free Life starts constructing an American dream of modern human relations and emotions less in their contradictions than in their relationality in which cooperation and mutual infiltration supersede conflicts to define interraciality. Ha Jin in A Free Life, Nanjing Requiem, A Map of Betrayal, and poems and John Okada in No-No Boy paint a vision for the time to follow.

Narrative, Orality, and Native-American Historical Consciousness: The Critique of Logocentrism in Louise Erdrich’s Tracks

title: Narrative, Orality, and Native-American Historical Consciousness: The Critique of Logocentrism in Louise Erdrich’s Tracks abstract: 鑒於對被遺忘和未受重視的原住民論述日益關注，本人認為應適時地回到傳統西方歷史論述與原住民的歷史意識之間辯論的核心文本。南西．彼德森在1994年的《現代語言學會會刊》(PMLA)上，刊登了一篇名為「歷史、敘述、路薏絲•鄂萃曲的《蹤跡》」一文，讚揚鄂萃曲的小說平衡於兩個極端：一方是傳統記錄性歷史的再現思考，另一方是由後結構主義反再現所提出的語言深淵。彼德森對鄂萃曲小說的評價是細心且恰當。然而，我所關注的是彼德森低估了鄂萃曲賦予小說中主角納納布許的重要性。納納布許拒絕屈服於西方書寫典範，且讚揚美國原住民阿尼許納比族的口說傳統，並反抗殖民書寫霸權影響。彼德森似乎未察覺鄂萃曲削弱寶琳（小說第二敘述者）敘述聲音。彼德森宣稱「鄂萃曲的小說掌握了納納布許和寶琳緊張對立的觀點」。表面上的確如此，但是進一步探討卻有兩個關鍵問題：首先，她敘述記錄的奇譎與疏離本質；再者，納納布許的口述優點在互為主體的矩陣中茁壯，皆由他的社群和自然世界培養而成。因此，我認為《蹤跡》並非如彼德森所宣稱的「兩派並行」。更深入閱讀反而可以探索納納布許根植於人類與動物多元相互滋養中，發展認同感與敘述聲音，一種從當代物質生態論述而言，深具生命力的民主。 In view of the rising interest in resurrecting forgotten or invalidated modalities of aboriginal discourse, it seems timely to return to a pivotal text in the debate between traditional Western historical narrative and Native-American historical consciousness. Nancy J. Peterson, in a 1994 PMLA article titled ＂History, Narrative, and Louise Erdrich’s Tracks,＂ champions Erdrich’s novel as a praiseworthy compromise between two extremes: the representational claims of conventional documentary history on the one hand, and the linguistic abyss proffered by poststructuralist anti-representationalism on the other. Such an assessment is both meticulous and apt. My contention, however, is that Peterson underestimates the strength Erdrich gives one of the novel’s narrators, Nanapush, who refuses to capitulate to the Western paradigm of written discourse and instead celebrates the oral tradition of the Anishinabe Native Americans, giving it a place both outside and impervious to the hegemony of colonial written discourse. Peterson also seems to miss the extent to which Erdrich undercuts the validity of the narrative voice of Pauline (the novel’s second narrator). Peterson’s claim that ＂Erdrich’s novel holds Nanapush’s and Pauline’s antithetical views in tension,＂ while certainly true on a formal level, is questionable in light of two key issues: first, the deceitful and alienating nature of her narratival recordings; second, the strength with which Nanapush’s narrative flourishes within an intersubjective matrix fostered by those within his community as well as the natural world itself. Consequently, Tracks may not be as bipartisan in its compromise as Peterson claims it to be. A richer reading of the text, proffered here, proposes exploring the embeddedness of Nanapush’s sense of identity and narrative voice within a sustaining and ever-nourishing multiplicity of human and animal life forms, a kind of democracy of animate life, to borrow and modify a phrase from contemporary material ecocriticism.