不能言說的出口：弱勢文學作為一種翻譯的可能

Abstract

本文旨在探討如何將不能言說之事物藉由翻譯的方式再現。受到托妮·莫里森（Toni Morrison）的演講所啟發，本文將探討弱勢文學中如何再現那些不被言說之物。作為經典文學的炮灰（抑或是養分），不被（也不可）言說之物在弱勢文學之中找到了論述的背景。也因此，為了能更有效率地檢視這些不能言說之物，本文將視弱勢文學中的語言表現為一種翻譯方法，進而探討酒井直樹翻譯理論中，對於翻譯體制的批判與反思。本文也將討論弱勢文學中的翻譯活動如何透過語言的去疆域化以及再疆域化來銘記、消除、還有扭曲對於邊界的概念。 第一章藉由探討珍·瑞絲 （Jean Rhys）的〈藻海無邊〉和車學敬（Theresa Hak Kyung Cha）的〈聽寫〉來凸顯自我與他者的對立關係如何在弱勢文學的翻譯行為中再現。第二章透過阿蘭達蒂‧洛伊的兩本小說，〈微物之神〉及 〈極樂之邦〉來深入討論邊界的跨越以及心靈創傷如何以翻譯行為解析。延續前兩章的討論，第三章以跨越國界的方式試論翻譯行為何以能替不能言說者達到語言行動（speech act）的目的。對華特·班雅明來說，「純語言」（pure language）雖不是一種真正將各語言揉雜而成為一體的語言，它也引進作為翻譯原型或是理想的互補性。將弱勢文學視為一種翻譯可能體現其作為一種後設語言覺識以及跨文化理解的能力。此種觀點將可使不同文本重新被閱讀以及互相交流。

The core of the thesis is to answer the following questions: How to render speakable what was formerly unspeakable? How to say something unsayable? Being inspired by Toni Morrison’s lecture— “Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The Afro-American Presence in American Literature”— the thesis aims to explore the representation of the unspeakable things unspoken in selected works of minor literature. As the canon fodder, the unspeakable things are patently presented in minor literature; therefore, the investigation would like to explore the possibility of presenting the unspeakable things through a translation practice which is more evident and effective in minor literature. During my process of analysis, the linguistic practice in minor literature would be conceptualized as an act of translation through a reading of Naoki Sakai’s works which problematize the conventional idea of translation. The thesis would also like to explore how the act of translation in minor literature inscribes, erases, and distorts borders through its deterritorialization and reterritorialization of languages. Chapter One explores the self/other opposition with a discussion of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictée. Chapter Two digs deeper into the issues of psychic traumas through the act of translation and border-crossing in Arundhati Roy’s two novels, The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Continuing the previous discussion, Chapter Three opens up the possible speech act for the unspeakable things unspoken with a transnational approach. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the interlinearity of the Benjaminian “pure language.” According to Walter Benjamin, pure language is not an actual language; it does not refer to a merging of all languages into a singular linguistic system. Pure language introduces a concept where all languages complement each other in intention. Reading minor literature as a form of translation might mark a meta-linguistic capability for intercultural understanding; this mode of reception might help different texts to be reapproached and reconnected with one another.