Discoursing on Disaster: The Hermeneutics of Environmental Catastrophe

論述災難：環境浩劫詮釋學

10.6184/TKR.200812_39(1).0002

Kate Rigby

生態文學批評 ； 浩劫 ； 氣候變遷 ； 里斯本大地震 ； 克萊斯特 ； 康德 ； 盧梭 ； 伏爾泰 ； Ecocriticism ； catastrophe ； climate change ； Lisbon earthquake ； Heinrich von Kleist ； Kant ； Rousseau ； Voltaire

Tamkang Review

39卷1期（2008 / 12 / 01）

19 - 40

英文

不論是災難本身或作爲其潛在的可能，個人、社群及社會對環境浩劫的反應，都將透過認知該災難的文化設釋架構。從這個角度來說，面對生態危機的考驗不僅攸關科學及社會、實際及政治等面向，也牽涉到詮釋學及論述學。面對這樣的挑戰，不論起源是神話、宗教、哲學或是政治的，文學及文化研究對於檢視上述的詮釋架構具有長足的貢獻。這些框架在面對即將來臨的災難之時，或許可讓我們在行動上的率備同時符合效率與倫理、卻也可能成爲其絆腳石。本文以解讀克萊斯特(Heinrich von Kleist)的短篇小說《智利大地震》(1807)來說明此一論點。小說雖以1647年律虐智利聖地牙哥的大地震作爲背景，卻同時回應了1755年里斯本大地震之後，神性與自然、社會的關係上的哲學與宗教爭辯。克萊斯特並未明確擁護這些爭辯中的某特定立場，而是採取一種敘事式的研究，呈現來自環境災難中、各類實際及政治論述框架的意涵。儘管地震所帶來的浩劫有別於像氣候變遷之類的人爲災難，克萊斯特的敘事揭示了，在環境災難的脈絡中，「自然」與「文化」、文字與世界之間不可避免的糾結關係。

How individuals, communities and societies respond to environmental catastrophe, whether in the event or as a potentiality, is crucially informed by the culturally mediated interpretative frameworks within which such disasters are perceived. In this regard, the challenge of confronting ecocrisis is as much hermeneutic and discursive as it is scientific and social, practical and political. Literary and cultural studies have much to contribute towards meeting this challenge through the examination of those interpretative frameworks-variously mythical, religious, philosophical or political in genesis-which could either hinder or enable our preparedness to act effectively and ethically in the face of immanent or unfolding disaster. This will be demonstrated here through a reading of Heinrich von Kleist's short story, ”The Earthquake in Chile” (1807). Although the narrative is set in Chile at the time of the massive earthquake that devastated Santiago in 1647, it responds to the philosophical and religious debates concerning the relationship of the divine to nature and society that followed the more recent Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Rather than endorsing unequivocally any one position that was taken in these debates, Kleist undertakes a narrative investigation of the practical and political implications that are shown to arise from differing discursive enframings of environmental disaster. While the catastrophe caused by an earthquake clearly differs from one that is predominantly anthropogenic in origin, such as climate change, Kleist's narrative discloses the inevitable entanglement of 'nature' and 'culture', word and world, in the context of environmental disaster.

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