從陳雪《橋上的孩子》看女性鄉土想像

Abstract

本文從「女性鄉土想像」視點來解讀陳雪《橋上的孩子》作品，進而思考該作品在九○年代後台灣新鄉土小說中的定位。不安定的夜市鄉土經驗使得主角的身分認同在形成過程中很難避免混亂，但在另一方面，這樣的鄉土經驗也是日後促使主角自覺到自己是為擁有流動且多樣認同的弱勢者的原因。陳雪小說到了《橋上的孩子》，才終於重構了與父母親的記憶，且戀人過去的記憶連接著她自己痛苦的記憶，當能與他者共享記憶時，也就整理了這些混亂的記憶，從中來認識自己這個多元複雜的主體，當能肯定當下的自己時，也才得到了修復與故鄉及家人關係的機會。《橋上的孩子》通過女兒自己的身體經驗深化了對母親的理解，透過描寫女性身體經驗來突顯出女性鄉土經驗的異質性，這點筆者認為是本書的特點之一。

In this article, I interpret The Child on the Bridge from the perspective of “women’s imaginings of native places,” and discuss how the experiences of her native place at a night fair resulted on the one hand in indelible confusion in the process of her self-understanding, but later had a great influence in her acquisition of a perspective that understands identity as a constantly changing process and attaches importance to its compositeness and plurality. Chen Xue’s novels have reflected the course of her psychotherapy over a long period of time, and it could be said that with The Child on the Bridge, when she became able to objectify her memories, rebuild her memories of her parents, and share memories with others, that is to say, when she became able to bring some sort of order to these confused memories and affirm her current self as a fluid and pluralistic entity, she finally gained the opportunity to repair relations with her native place and her parents. The Child on the Bridge highlights the heterogeneity of women’s experiences of native places through the depiction of the experiences of her mother and herself pertaining to sex and gender in their native place.