抵抗與敵對:《印度之旅》中的現代主義與反帝國主義

Abstract

本論文探討《印度之旅》中的現代主義如何針對西方人文主義中的帝國主義成分做出自我反射的檢視和批判。另外，本論文也提出《印度之旅》中的現代主義能夠為印度他者發聲，也能反映印度人對英國帝國主義的抵抗與脫離英國國家主義而獨立的反動聲音。本論文的第一章探究現代主義如何呈現在殖民情境下的混雜性，進而批判西方人文主義中被假定為放諸四海皆準的價值與原則。第二章透過馬拉巴山洞(Marabar Caves)和接下來審判何吉茲(Aziz)的情節，來診斷人文主義中的帝國主義成分，並揭露英國對「印度兵變」(The Indian Mutiny)的歷史建構具有強烈的東方主義色彩；這樣的歷史建構是用來鞏固並合理化英國的帝國主義論述。本論文的最後一章將說明《印度之旅》中的現代主義因著語言上的不確性(linguistic indeterminacy)，得以展現印度人對英國帝國主義的抵抗與發出印度國家獨立的反動聲音。

In my thesis, I argue that the modernism of A Passage is able to serve as a self-reflexive critique on the imperial elements of Western humanism. Moreover, I contend that A Passage’s modernism has the potential to manifest resistance and independence for the Indian other against the British imperialism. In Chapter One of my thesis, I intend to demonstrate how modernism reveals the hybridity in the colonial contact to expose the limitations of Western humanism, which the West had long professed as universal. In the second chapter, I claim that, through the Marabar Caves episode and its following development, the modernism in A Passage can diagnose the imperial elements in humanism and reveal the British historiography of the Indian Mutiny as an Orientalist construction which consolidates British imperialism. In my final chapter, I argue that the indeterminacy of modernist language in A Passage reveals the potential to voice Indian resistance and independence against the British imperialism.