试论翁伯托·艾柯的“百科全书迷宫”叙事观的演绎

On Umberto Eco's Narrative Inquiry into His Theory of “Encyclopedia as Labyrinth”

本文尝试探讨艾柯对"百科全书迷宫"叙事所进行的形上追问。从20世纪50年代到万维网时代,艾柯以阿奎那百科全书式哲学文本研究为起点,经由其对乔伊斯文学百科全书的讨论和对百科全书源流的考辨,探索百科全书的连接形式和万维网链接技术同质性,以及如何在叙事中利用清单将叙事线条开岔,把世界上的书籍碎片用语义网络连成一本整全之书来统摄整个宇宙和文化。以此来展示艾柯从中世纪的那部"电脑"驰骋到现代万维网时代处理知识的技术这一过程中"百科全书迷宫"叙事观的流变过程,显示艾柯对古典文化进行现代转化的理路。

This essay attempts to discuss Umberto Eco＇s narrative inquiry into ＂encyclopedia as labyrinth＂ in the metaphysical dimension. From the 1950＇s to the Internet Age, his academic interest extended from Thomas Aquinas＇s encyclopedia-like philosophical work and James Joyce＇s literary encyclopedia to the history of encyclopedias, so as to discover the similarity between encyclopedia and the Intemet, and to explore the possible ways to write a total work by making the narrative lines diverge via listing, and by connecting the fragments of books in the world via the semantic web to reflect the whole universe and culture. The ultimate purpose of the essay is to explore the routes through which Umberto Eco constructs his narrative theory of＂encyclopedia as labyrinth＂ based on his insights into the medieval scholar＇s computer-like capacity to incorporate endless book fragments and into the technology to process infinite knowledge in the present Internet age, and to study his approach to creatively using the ancient cultural elements in the modem times.