會説話的傷口——晚清抄本《微蟲世界》中的創傷記憶

Wounds through Which to Speak:Memory and Trauma in The World of a Tiny Insect

《微蟲世界》是一部寫於十九世紀末年的自敍傳,其中包括童年時代的作者在太平天國之亂期間的遭遇。除了上世紀五十年代曾片段發表之外,此書原文的全本僅僅以手寫本形式保存下來。本文從文學、歷史和心理學研究角度討論這部作品,提出這是一部典型的創傷寫作,不僅因爲作者記載下來的戰爭暴力,也由於此書不同尋常的敍事結構乃是對創傷記憶之運作過程的模擬;最後,通過檢視本書在二十世紀的遭際,討論發生於印刷媒體中的文化記憶的扭曲。

The World of a Tiny Insect(《微蟲世界》)is a late nineteenth century Chinese autobiography that contains a lengthy recollection of the author's traumatic childhood experience during the Taiping Rebellion.Apart from a short excerpt printed in the 1950s China's Mainland,it exists only in manuscript form.Drawing on work in the fields of literary studies and psychology,this essay argues that The World of a Tiny Insect is an exemplary piece of trauma writing not just because of the grisly violence depicted therein but also because of its unusual structure,which mimics the workings of traumatic memory.The essay concludes with a discussion of the distortion of cultural memory in textual transmission that results in further violence and trauma.