小泉八云《怪读》的“双重书写”与“起源”概念（英文）

Double Inscription and the Concept of Origin in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan

对许多西方读者而言,小泉八云于年出版的《怪谈》经常被视为日本怪谈文学的重要文本。不过,此书原先以英文撰写并针对西方读者的事实,显示出在西方语境中作为一种文类的"怪谈"具有某种跨文化与翻译的特质,正因《怪谈》不仅仅是一本翻译作品,同时也是西方语境中怪谈文学源起的标记性著作,怪谈文类的起源因此可以是翻译研究上的有趣议题。本文企图呈现这种双重书写(double inscription)的逻辑,并依此逻辑展开对于怪谈故事中"起源"概念的分析。本文首先探讨小泉八云在该书序里描述各种关于怪谈源起的方式,其次分析书中名作《雪女》自我否定/再生产的故事结构,来解释"起源"的概念不仅仅是重复叙述/翻译所产生的效应,同时也是叙事结构本身对于故事起源的认定与扬弃的双重需求所致。

To many Western readers, Lafcadio Hearn＇s Kwaidan： Stories and Studies of Strange Things, published in 1904, is a seminal work of what they perceive as Japanese kaidan literature. The fact that this work was first published in English for Western readers reveals the transcuhural as well as translational nature of this literary genre that is called kaidan in the English- speaking context. The question of the origin of kaidan therefore makes it an interesting case of translation, since this book, in effect, is at once a translation and an inscription of the origin of Japanese kaidan literature in the Western context. It is in this double inscription that this paper begins to interrogate ＂the concept of origin＂ in kaidan stories. The paper will carry out a detailed analysis of the ＂preface＂ of Hearn＇s Kwaidan and examine the ways in which the ＂origins＂ of these stories are discussed and constructed. The paper will then examine the self-negating and self-productive structure of the representative kaidan tale, ＂Yuki-Onna＂ （ sometimes translated as ＂The Woman of Snow＂ ） which, according to its storyline, is a story that cannot be told. The paper will then analyze the narrative structure of this story that marks strangely on its impossibility, and reveals how the idea of origin is produced as an effect not only through repeated iteration/translation, but also out of the structural demand of a narrative that posits and erases, at once, the notion of origin.