從皇國少年到左傾青年： 台灣戰後初期 (1945~1949) 葉石濤的小說創作與思想轉折

Abstract

台灣作家葉石濤（1925～）個案的探討，讓我們得以觀察一個曾經被殖民化的心靈（皇國少年），如何在與殖民主義纏鬥的過程中，歷經馴服與反省，最終將這些資源轉化為追求主體性的動力。本文試圖從他戰後初期的小說創作與思想轉折，來論述此一艱困的過程。綜觀葉氏戰後初期作品，可大分為兩類，一類是以台灣當代現實為背景的現實主義小說。左翼青年葉石濤所採取的描述台灣社會階級矛盾的視角，終於使他走出西川滿影響下個人性的浪漫抒情主義，走向社會性的浪漫英雄主義，一種「再解放」的革命史觀。另一類作品，則是以四百年來台灣歷史事件為背景的歷史題材小說，葉石濤在日據下雖通曉台灣史卻依然不能為他帶來對殖民主義的批判視野，一旦這種史實被「覺醒」後的葉重新運用，則以他遂早熟的技巧（殖民遺產）完成了這些台灣歷史題材小說。文化與國家意識的「混雜」（hybridity），最後造就出葉石濤這樣的心靈狀態與認同取向。一個「學舌」（mimicry）的殖民地之子在歷史的戲弄下，艱困地蛻變出一個新的民族自我，葉石濤的文學與思想所呈現的正是這殖民史上難遇之島史的曲折經驗。

Through the study of Yeh’s case, we are able to observe how a colonized mind (as an Imperial Adolescent), in struggling against colonialism and in experiencing the stages of yielding and rethinking, eventually transformed these processes into a pursuit of his own subjectivity. In examining Yeh’s works during the early Post-WWII period as a whole, we divided them into two categories. One of them is Realist novels that deal with Taiwan’s contemporary reality. Yeh, a Left-Wing young man, started from “personal” Romanticism under the influence of Nishikawa Mitsuru and transformed into “social” Heroic Romanticism that is a kind of “re-liberalized” revolutionary historic view. The other is historical novels which deal with Taiwan’s historic events in the past 400 years. Yeh employs his premature writing skills (his colonial legacy) to finish these historic novels. At last, the “hybridity” of culture and national consciousness accomplishes Yeh’s state of mind and orientation of identity. Under the twist of history, a “tongue learner” (mimicry) and at the same time a colonial son transforms difficultly into a national self. Yeh’s case represents a rare historic experience of a colonial island in the colonial history.