重複中的靈光乍現：《餘物》與《10:04》中的自動行為邏輯

Abstract

本論文探討麥卡錫的《餘物》與勒納的《10:04》中以「重複」此一主題所呈現的自動行為邏輯（the logic of automatism）。本研究認為，小說中對「重複」的描述揭示了數位非意識如何影響、形塑當代主體性，挑戰意識向來被賦予的優越性。論文探討演算法重複結構對當代經驗的影響，此一命題，呼應了近年文學批評的非人類轉向。論文第一章回顧ㄧ系列文學研究論述探問非人類力量（例如演算法）與人類認知間的相互作用如何建構我們在數位社會中的體現經驗。第二章闡釋論文的理論框架，首先介紹史提格萊的藥理學和相關概念，以說明重複在形構當代主體與日常行動時所扮演的角色。本章亦闡述海爾斯對非意識層認知的理解，試圖申論，人類與技術認知系統的運作，皆奠基於以未來完成式所表達的非意識時間邏輯之上。第三章探討《餘物》如何藉由敘事者對過往經歷的重演，刻畫數位人性的特徵。透過強調敘事者對物質細節與循環模式的癡迷，小說中的重演成為敘事者的非意識的延伸，建立敘事者與外在物質環境之間的連結。第四章分析《10:04》中以預辯法修辭所表達的「重複中的差異」，探問預辯修辭的敘事結構如何使當下蘊含向未來開放的可能性，並提出一種新的意義範式。此外，預辯法通過其與非意識未來完成時態相同的時間性，揭露了非人類世界與人類經驗之間的照應。第五章總結本論文，並反思數位人性在非人類轉向中的角色，並提出未能在前面章節中討論的幾個有助進一步思考數位人性的關鍵命題。

This thesis explores the logic of automatism represented by the motif of repetition in Tom McCarthy’s Remainder (2006) and Ben Lerner’s 10:04 (2014). It argues that the representation of repetition in these novels lays bare the digital nonconscious which shapes the contemporary subjectivity and which challenges the hierarchical superiority of consciousness. This study examines the impact of algorithmic repetition on contemporary experiences and seeks to intervene in conversations over the nonhuman turn in recent literary criticism. Chapter One introduces a series of literary studies that are attentive to the interplay of nonhuman forces, particularly algorithms, and human cognition and to their role in shaping our embodied experiences in the digital society. Chapter Two addresses the theoretical approaches of this thesis. It explains Bernard Stiegler’s idea of pharmacology and related concepts with a view to illustrating the role of repetition in casting the contemporary subject and its quotidian activities. This chapter also looks at N. Katherine Hayles’s understanding of nonconscious cognition, explicating how this type of cognitive operates in the future anterior tense that frames both human and technical activities. Chapter Three asks how Remainder captures the characteristics of digital humanity with the narrator’s reenactments of past experiences. By emphasizing the narrator’s obsession with material details and looping patterns, the novel presents reenactment as the extension of the narrator’s cognitive nonconscious that helps establish connections with the material surroundings. Chapter Four reads “repetition with a difference” articulated through prolepsis in 10:04. It analyzes the narrative structure of prolepsis that opens the present to a spectrum of projected possibilities and, hence, a new paradigm of meaning making. In addition, prolepsis reveals the correspondence between the nonhuman worlds and human experiences with a temporality identical to the future anterior tense of the cognitive nonconscious. Chapter Five concludes this study with reflections on the role of digital humanity in the current nonhuman turn. It also proposes several key propositions that provide crucial lenses through which to consider digital humanity.