臺灣「昆蟲書寫」初探－以吳明益蝶類書寫為主要分析場域

Abstract

本論文研究臺灣現代自然書寫中，「昆蟲書寫」的部分，並聚焦於吳明益的蝶類書寫，以其為主要論述場域，透過文本分析，探察臺灣昆蟲書寫之特色，以及吳明益如何將其帶至另一高度，別闢蹊徑，為臺灣昆蟲書寫劈開一片新的風景。近年來臺灣現代自然書寫在量與質上皆有相當的成果，題材亦愈見多元，如劉克襄寫飛鳥、廖鴻基寫鯨豚，皆自成一家。臺灣素有昆蟲王國美稱，幾位常為論者提及之自然書寫作家，如劉克襄、洪素麗、徐仁修、陳煌、吳明益等，亦都有書寫昆蟲的作品。然不若「鳥類書寫」、「鯨豚書寫」等已有論者著墨，「昆蟲書寫」這個題目卻似乎尚未有研究者觸及。本論文即以「昆蟲書寫」為研究範疇，嘗試拓展臺灣現代自然書寫的研究面向。論文首先耙梳臺灣現代自然書寫的諸多文本，將書寫昆蟲的作品梳理出來，作為論文研究之取材。根據蒐羅到的這些文本材料，論文再作一初步窺探，觀察此類作品之特色，包括在不同時代、不同環境倫理觀底下所呈顯的不同樣貌。論文接著將重點聚焦於吳明益的蝶類書寫，以《迷蝶誌》和《蝶道》二部作品為分析場域，析論作家如何書寫昆蟲，如何透過旁徵博引，將昆蟲生態與人類文明串連，並深入物種生命之肌理，對人類與生態環境間錯綜複雜的關係作深沉、細緻而動人的思考，其揉合「文學性」與「科學性」、「知性」與「感性」兼顧的書寫策略，又是如何豐富昆蟲書寫之內涵，展現昆蟲書寫的深度和廣度，形成臺灣現代自然書寫中罕見的「異數」。

This thesis investigates “insect writing” in modern Taiwanese nature writing, taking its field of discourse as Wu Ming-Yi’s butterfly writings. Through textual analysis, it will discuss the particular features of Taiwan’s insect writings, and how Wu has taken them to a new level and created a new direction for this genre. In recent years, there have been significant contributions, in terms of both quantity and quality, to Taiwan’s nature writing on a number of different topics, with both Liu Ke-Xiang’s “bird writing” and Liao Hong-Ji’s “cetacean writing” being notable examples. Taiwan has long been known as an “insect kingdom”, and many commonly discussed authors, such as Liu Ke-Xiang, Hong Su-Li, Xu Ren-Xiu, Chen Huang and Wu Ming-Yi, have all written about insects. Unlike writings on birds and cetaceans, though, there has been no research to date on “insect writing”. This thesis aims to fill that gap and thus broaden the scope of research on modern Taiwanese nature writing. It begins by surveying modern Taiwanese nature writing and identifying those works that deal with insects. It next discusses the particular features of those works, including when they were written and the different environmental ethical positions taken by their authors. It then concludes by focusing on two works by Wu Ming-Yi on butterflies as our field of discourse ─ The Book of Lost Butterflies and Butterfly Pathway. Discussion will include how Wu writes about butterflies, how he connects insects with the human world, how he digs into the texture of the life of insects to offer the reader penetrating, detailed and moving descriptions of the complicated relations between humans and insects, and how his textual strategy of combining the literary with the scientific, knowledge with feeling, both deepens and widens the scope of insect writing and cements his position as a rare bird among Taiwan’s nature writers.