Decomposing the Authoritative Author: Truth and Confession in J. M. Coetzee's "Foe" and "Summertime"

解離權威作者：論柯慈作品《仇敵》和《夏日》裡的真實與自白

10.6184/TKR201306-5

Kai-Su Wu

真實 ； 作者 ； 自白 ； 靜默 ； 倫理書寫 ； truth ； author ； confession ； silence ； ethical writing

Tamkang Review

43卷2期（2013 / 06 / 01）

107 - 129

英文

南非著名作家柯慈一向對於自己作品的形式或內容擁有不懈的實驗精神。從第一部作品《幽暗之地》（1974）到近期的《夏日》（2009），柯慈的一貫主題均涉及對於真實的敘述，而此敘述與文本中作者式的要角對於權威的施行與運用密切相關。為了將這些「自我」角色置於問題意識之中，柯慈的作法是引入他者的干預。此篇論文試著探討柯慈如何透過揭示未受關注的聲音對於權威作者進行解離。在小說《仇敵》中，柯慈藉由「星期五」這個角色曝現了蘇姍‧芭頓與作家福之於生命敘事概念的盲點。「星期五」缺席般的在場以及他殊異的溝通方式突顯了柯慈身為一位白人作家所產生的焦慮之感。而在虛構自傳《夏日》裡，柯慈重拾白人書寫的主題，不過這次他將「自己」設定為一位已故作家，任由身邊女性與同事在與一位傳記作者的訪談中進行評論與批判。文中將指出柯慈此般安排是為導向一種轉化告白，藉此得以逃逸唯我論與直証的自我坦白。論文最後將說明《仇敵》中的「星期五」與《夏日》裡約翰‧柯慈的老父所代表的無聲他者使柯慈不得不察覺自身所承擔之責任的不足。也因此，柯慈所進行的倫理書寫將無止盡。

The works of the South African writer J. M. Coetzee have always been regarded as highly experimental writings in form and content. From his first work ”Dusklands” (1974) to his most recent ”Summertime” (2009), Coetzee engages with the theme of truth-telling regarding the practice of authority by the authorial characters in his literary texts. In order to pose questions to these ”selves,” Coetzee always endeavors to usher in interventions on the part of the other. The current paper intends to explore how Coetzee decomposes authoritative authors so as to reveal previously unheeded voices. In ”Foe”, Coetzee exposes the blind spot of Susan Barton's and Mr. Foe's concepts of life narrative by disclosing the muteness of the third party, Friday. The absent presence of Friday and his differentiated ways of communication diplay Coetzee's anxiety as a white writer. In ”Summertime” Coetzee picks up again the problematics of white writing. He goes so far as to make himself a dead writer judged by others, mainly via the form of interviews. Such an arrangement, in turn, leads to a transformed confession, with which Coetzee aims to evade any solipsistic and deictic confession. Coetzee's Foe comes after and totally disfigures the terrain of Defoe's ”Robinson Crusoe” by complicating the relationship between those who are entitled to speak and write and those who are not. In ”Summertime”, Coetzee tries to re-conceptualize the idea of the classic with his deliberate arrangement of the biographer and the interviewees as the survivors of his stand-in author. The paper concludes with positing Coetzee as an ethical writer, discussing how he never feels responsible enough for the other without voices by demonstrating Friday in Foe and John Coetzee's father in ”Summertime”.

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