白先勇小說中的現代主義──《台北人》的記憶與鄉愁

Abstract

現代主義在一九六○年代台灣文學的特徵，或許可從它對於書寫主體性的獲取上加以定位。這樣的定位可能可以視之為實驗性地達到現代性，而不是一種（追求）文學的新風格或新概念的運動。在認同危機的基礎上，年輕作家如白先勇與其文學同伴們，在黨國的審查制度之下積極地針對中國古典進行現代性的詮釋，並以西方文學作為想像的現代性的範例。此一黨國的審查制度實質上阻斷了兩個文學的發展進程：一是五四運動的文學傳統；另一是一九四五年以前日本統治時期的本土台灣文學。台灣文學中的現代主義可以被視為一種論述形式，在戰後台灣的特殊社會與歷史環境之下，想像並創造文學的現代性。白先勇身為此一運動的代表性作家，他的現代性特別表現在《台北人》一書。該書開始對抗著此系列故事所書寫的那一個時代，重層的空間、時間與文化；技巧則迴盪著優美旋律般地鄉愁，形塑成一種失落與墮落的美學，為那些腐敗的人們唱成一首文學輓歌，也為鼓舞那些生活著的人們而唱成一首歡頌。他藉由忠實、誠摯地對一九六○年代的現代主義進行重新想像，以對抗歷史的重量以及認同危機的陰影，對於那些戰後在台灣生活的人致上真實的敬意。

Modernism in the Taiwanese literature of the 1960s might be characterized by its orientation toward an acquisition of its subjectivity of writing, which properly could be considered experimental to achieve modernity rather than a movement for a new style or a new concept of a literature. With a foundation on their identity crises, young writers like Pai Hsien-yung and his coterie made zealous efforts to practice a modern interpretation of Chinese classics and use Western literature as an example of imagining modernity under the censorship imposed by the Nationalist party, which essentially blocked the progress of both the May Fourth literary tradition and that of nativist Taiwanese literature carried out under Japanese rule before 1945. Modernism in Taiwan literature can be considered a form of discourse that, while undertaken during specific set of social and historical circumstances, imagined and created literary modernity in Taiwan during the post war years. As a representative writer of this movement, Pai Hsien-yung particularly reveals his own modernity in Taipei People, which is set in against the contemporary era in which the stories were written, multi-layering a space, a time, and a culture, his technique reverberates a melodious nostalgia that produces an aesthetic of loss and depravity, providing a literary elegy to the people who rot away, singing a paean to inspire people who live on. It pays true homage to the people who lived in Taiwan after the war, by means of a sincere and earnest reimagination of 1960s modernism written against the weight of history and in the shadow of an identity in crisis.