多元混合敘事：《Fate/stay night》及視覺小說媒介之探索

Abstract

本論文旨在探討視覺小說此一新興媒體，如何採用交錯敘事與多重結局來呈現有別於傳統敘事的替代方法，透過細讀（Close Reading）的方式研究日本視覺小說《Fate/stay night》（以下簡稱《FSN》）。隨著科技的進步和個人電腦的大量普及，各種具有探索數位空間潛力的新媒體形式不斷湧現，發展出蓬勃的文化現象。視覺小說即為其中之一，其作為互動式小說，不僅結合文字敘事與美術插圖，亦能在限定架構中和讀者互動，因此本人於論文中主張視覺小說之混雜性質（hybridity）值得深入學術性探討。本論文於第一章探討《FSN》作為視覺小說，在表面上如何受到傳統紙本小說與電子遊戲的影響，及其產生之多媒體體驗和上述兩種媒體的相異之處。第二章聚焦於軟體的內部機制，討論《FSN》之內部機制如何與閱讀視覺小說的行為進行互動，並推進特定類型的敘事方式。第三章則分析《FSN》如何通過三個連續的故事線構建自我指涉的敘事，並探討呈現多重結局對於視覺小說作為新興媒體的敘事潛力所代表的意義。本論文透過全面探索《FSN》中的三條路線，提出視覺小說媒體位於紙本小說與數位遊戲之間的中介性，主張此一多元混種的特色為數位媒體呈現新敘事的普遍方式，值得學界更多的關注。

This thesis aims to explore the visual novel medium, which accommodates alternate methods of storytelling with overlapping narratives and multiple endings, through a close reading of the Japanese visual novel Fate/stay night (henceforth FSN). The advancement of technology and the mass adoption of the personal computer have resulted in the flourishing of an evolving cultural phenomenon, as new media and mediums exploring the contours of what one could do with digital spaces emerge. One of these new media forms is the visual novel, a form of interactive fiction that combines textual narratives with artistic illustrations and a degree of user interactivity. I argue in this thesis that FSN’s hybrid nature is worthy of further scholarly investigation for several reasons. Chapter One examines how FSN’s hybrid presentation of the visual novel medium is influenced by both traditional paper-based fiction and video games on the surface layer, and how the resulting multimedia experience differs from both. Chapter Two focuses on the work’s inner mechanisms of the software, how they interface with the act of reading the visual novel, and how this interaction facilitates a specific kind of storytelling. Chapter Three analyzes how FSN’s storytelling constructs a self-referential narrative through the three sequential storylines, and what the equal presentation of multiple endings says about the narrative potential of visual novels as a new medium. By mapping out the three routes within FSN through a full exploration of the visual novel, this thesis suggests that the visual novel medium is situated in the middle point of paper-based fiction and digital video games. I argue that this hybrid niche is an increasingly common way for new narratives to be told through the digital medium and deserves more scholarly attention.