《臺灣民報》系報刊中的城隍信仰論述與創作分析

Abstract

本研究試圖藉由對於「宗教空間」意義的挖掘，在以「現代性」為主要方法解讀日治時期的臺灣都市文學研究中，尋找新的分析路徑。地方的現代化並非一瞬間的改變。在現有的日治時期都市小說研究中，主要討論現代性為居住在都市的人們帶來了怎麼樣的摩登體驗，以及都市與居住者之間的交互關係。但本研究注意到，雖然現代生活帶來摩登的新奇感受，但事實上，民俗、信仰、迷信等非理性的習慣與文化，依然存在於一般大眾每日的生活中。宗教空間是常民生活中的日常場域，具有豐富的論述可能性，但在過往的都市研究中卻時常被忽略。透過《臺灣民報》系列刊物「反迷信」論述的考察，以及〈神秘的自制島〉、〈島都〉、《命運難違》、《女性悲曲》四篇小說的文本分析，本研究發現，都市中的宗教空間是現代性與迷信相互融合與衝突的場域，知識分子、商人階級、統治者與一般大眾，在對於宗教空間的解釋與使用上，呈現出豐富的面貌。其中尤其是「城隍信仰」特別受到日治時期知識分子的批判與討論，這與城隍本身作為陰間官吏的神格，以及每年的大稻埕霞海城隍祭典為全臺盛事有所關聯。本研究指出，宗教空間呈現了城市生活與傳統文化在經濟消費、政治治理層面的勾連，無法以二元對立的結構化約，文學中呈現的經濟與信仰、除魅與統治等要素相互角力的現象，蘊含豐富的意涵。

This research tries to look for new ways of analysis in the research that uses 'modernity' as its main method to interpret Taiwan urban literature during the Japanese colonial period. The modernization of places is not a momentary change. Current research on urban fiction of the Japanese colonial period mainly discusses the early experiences of the modern that modernity offers urban residents, as well as the interaction of the city and its residents. However, the research in this thesis notes that even though modern life brings a new experience of the modern, in reality irrational habits and cultures such as popular customs, beliefs, and superstitions continue to exist in the daily lives of the common people. Religious spaces are the everyday field of common people and have abundant spatial significance, yet past urban research tends to neglect this. Religious spaces in the city are the field where modernity and superstition mix and collide; intellectuals, merchants, rulers, and common people show a rich variety in their explanations and uses of religious spaces. By studying the 'superstition discourse' and 'creative works', this research has discovered that 'belief in the City God' has been particularly criticized and discussed by intellectuals in the Japanese colonial period, in its relations to the City God's status as official in the netherworld and the yearly festival of Dadaocheng's Xiahai Chenghuang celebrated by all of Taiwan. In the religious spaces of the belief in the City God there exists a power struggle between factors such as the economy, belief, exorcism, and domination, that has much significance on multiple levels.