旅行、倫理與文類研究---項美麗(1905-1997)的遊記書寫

Abstract

本計畫以被稱為「失落的重要美國文學瑰寶」的女作家項美麗(Emily Hahn, 1905-1997)四本書中之遊記部分為對象，同時探討兩個面向，一是所謂「旅遊倫理」（ethics of travel），二是她的遊記書寫風格特色，兩者中間也有相交之處。所謂「旅遊倫理」，是借自孟加拉學者S.M. Islam的用語，包含兩個層次，其一是指在遊記中的主角身處異域，因為文化差異等因素而可能遇上的道德困境和倫理學難題。旅遊主體可能深深感受到這些困惑，亦可能以自衞心理機制將之壓抑。評論家也可能難於判定相關行為之是非對錯，亦可從這些事例得到啟發，進而作出相關的倫理學意義的深入探討。這種讀法基本上屬於主題分析(thematic study)的範疇。然而當我們懷疑作者故意說謊，思考他違反遊記書寫的某種誠信原則是否產生道德上的疑慮，那麼這種「旅遊倫理」的討論，已經到了遊記的「後設層次」（meta-level），涉及書寫風格、相關文類規範和發展脈絡等等。 本計畫的野心，是將「旅遊倫理」的討論推展到第二個層次，亦即「遊記書寫的倫理學涵義」（the ethical implications of travel writing），跟申請人一向關注的西方旅遊文學文類特徵／書寫風格變化趨勢接軌。我想以項美麗為例子，初步勾勒出英美旅遊文學如何自十九世紀中葉以來從科學性的紀實漸而變成「文學」，又從基本上遵從所謂「寫實主義」的規範，過渡到近年虛實相混的「後現代」遊記。我會將項美麗的寫作風格跟在其前後的一些作家的代表性遊記比較，而分析不同的「非寫實」手法和它們可能營造的閱讀效果，並從中考究在不同的情況下，這些「說謊技巧」是否談得上具有某種倫理學意味。最後必須強調，本計畫的目標並不是繁煩的系譜式影響研究，而所謂「旅遊倫理」的探索，也絕非要建立一套判定作者或者寫作模式優劣對錯、黑白分明的道德體系，而是希望發掘跟遊記書寫相關的各種倫理學議題，展示其中幽微的意韻。

The object of this study is the travel writing in four books by Emily Hahn (1905-1997), “a great lost American literary treasure,” according to The New Yorker. This project includes two different and yet ultimately related aspects. One is the so-called “ethics of travel,” a term borrowed from Syed Manzurul Islam, which encompasses two different dimensions. The focuses on the moral difficulties and ethical challenges facing the traveling subject when encountering a very different culture. While the traveler may strongly feel such predicaments or repress them thanks to psychological defense mechanisms, we as critics might also be puzzled by the difficulties concerned, though we might also be inspired to explore the ethical nuances of the knotty issues concerned and gain some insights not readily available to the traveler. When we suspect that the traveler-narrator is lying in a part of his or her travelogue and wonder if such breaches of truthfulness entails something immoral, then our discussion of the “ethics of travels” has already departed from the more conventional kind of thematic or content studies and moved to a “meta-level” concerning different writing styles, generic norms, and the development of travel literature in history. This project seeks especially to explore the second kind of “ethics of travel,” that is, the ethical implications of travel writing as such. This concern goes well with my persistent interest in the changing writing style in the history of Western travel literature. Using Hahn’s writing in the 1930s and 40s as a prime example, I wish to sketch the developmental trends of travel literature from the more scientific, realistic kind in the nineteenth century, through a kind of more “literary” mode still adhering to Realist conventions, to the more recent “postmodern” writing which deliberately confuses fiction and reality. Furthermore, I wish to probe into some ethical significance and aesthetic effects of the various writing styles which defy the earlier norms.