“百科全书”的多重面貌——论埃科的创新性认知实践观及其符号学内涵

Multiple Faces of Encyclopedia:The Idea of Creative Cognition Practice and Eco’s Semiotic Approach

在《罗安娜女王的神秘火焰》中,意大利小说家与符号学家翁贝托·埃科曾经讲述了一位逆行性失忆症患者借助百科全书找回其个体记忆的故事。尽管埃科借此小说尝试探讨文化记忆与主体认知实践之间的关系问题,但是他的"百科全书"概念却时常被文学评论者们误认为是其博学特质的一种反映。然而从符号学角度来看,与"词典"范式所隐喻的归属秩序有别,该概念既指涉人类在不同历史时期所采用的认知模式,又意味着一种以创造和修正新模式为目的的符号性实践。一方面,通过肯定语义学模型所需的文化语境与主体感知成分,埃科使该种符号性实践成为诠释者通过发现事物之间潜在联系从而革新认知的一种方式;另一方面,埃科也借助"百科全书"概念弥合了他所提出的"符码理论"与"符号生产理论"之间的断裂,并在强调"解释项"之于实践的积极意义后,发现了实践反向修正既定框架的功能,从而把认知的生成归因于一种辩证、动态的系统性过程。最终,埃科的"百科全书"概念并非其丰富的知识背景的一种指称,而是对创新性认知实践及其历史的一种象征性表达。

In La misteriosa fiamma della regina Loana,the Italian novelist and semiotician Umberto Eco presents a retrograde amnesia patient and his experience of encyclopedic cognition.This novel not only allows us to re-examine the concept"encyclopedia"proposed by Eco,but also helps us understand his idea about the cultural cognition in practice.According to his analysis about the history of"encyclopedia",this term not only signifies a dynamically and openly cognitive mode,but is also different from a kind of dichotomous taxonomy which is denominated as"dictionary".Therefore,the concept of"encyclopedia"reflects the change of knowledge hierarchy in a long period of history,and in the meantime,it is also a basic mode for people to construct a world of imagination by semiotic practice.Besides,in terms of semiotics,the concept also reveals a dialectical relationship between form and practice.Thus,we can ascertain,Eco makes attempt to bridge the gap between theory of codes and theory of sign production by means of"encyclopedia",as well as believes that the dialectical relationship between the"dictionary"and the"encyclopedia"will contribute to the practice of dynamically cultural cognition in semiosis.In Eco’s novel La misteriosa fiamma della regina Loana,he presents this relationship and the practice through reproducing the phenomenon of interpretation and modification in the conversation of"experience of life"and"experience of reading".