| Abstract: | 作為地理實體，東方意味著歐洲以東的廣大領土。長久以來，東方不但被視為西方在文化上和政治上的競爭者，也是一個想像的他者，西方藉以建立自己的身分。在建立身分的過程中，西方創造一連串的二元對立，諸如：東方/西方、文明/野蠻、落後/進步等等。西方在這些二元對立中均取得絕對的優勢。然而，一次世界大戰耗損歐洲的人力、物力以及財力甚鉅，這種前所未有的經歷引起歐洲知識分子廣泛地探討歐洲的危機和衰退。法國著名文人梵樂希在此後發表多篇散文，橫跨文學、哲學、美學以及政治等範疇，其中不難發現濃厚的歐洲中心主義思想。對梵樂希而言，歐洲沒有固定的形象，而是不斷地進步、不斷地超越自身。基於梵樂希在詩學和美學理論所流露出的審美觀，我們對其歐洲精神的認知可以理解為「可塑性」（plasticité）。可塑性首先在黑格爾的哲學著作中萌芽，後經德希達的弟子瑪拉布研究、闡揚而確立，其總體性的概念即是人是自己的藝術家，可以透過自己的理念塑造自己的形象。在梵樂希的眼中，歐洲就是一個憑藉自我塑造的欲望打造自己形象的主體。相較之下，東方世界顯得因循守舊，無法擁有超越自身的形象，毫無可塑性可言。我們在此察覺到梵樂希的歐洲中心主義思想。然而，我們眼前還有一個問題尚待探討：梵樂希如何將歐洲中心主義建立在可塑性上？
As a geographic entity, “the Orient” refers to the vast territory lying to the east of Europe. For a long time, the Orient was regarded in the European imagination not only as a rival in political and cultural terms, but also as an ‘‘Other’’, an integral component in the way the Occident established its own identity. In the process of constructing its identity, the Occident creates a series of binary oppositions, such as: Orient/Occident, barbarism/civilization, backwardness/progress and so on. In these binary oppositions, the Occident always occupies a position of absolute superiority. However, the damage in terms of manpower, materials, and financial resources incurred by Europe during the First World War was severe enough to throw doubt on European claims to superiority, leading to a general discussion among European intellectuals about the crisis. During this period, Paul Valery, a highly celebrated French poet and essayist, published a series of essays in defense of European specificity that covered the categories of literature, philosophy, aesthetics, and politics. In spite of or because of the inherent Eurocentrism in his view, Valery’s writings enable us to understand something about the West that is often ignored today: as a subject of history, the West is not a fixed image, but a flexible one that is always in the process of self-fashioning and self-overcoming; on the contrary, the non-West is denied subjectivity and cannot survive in the long run except as an other to the West. This thesis tries to answer the question: How did Valery construct Eurocentrism through the concept of plasticity? |
