Heterotopias in Matthew Kneale’s ＂English Passengers＂

馬修．尼爾《英國旅人》中之異質空間

蕭碧莉(Pi-Li Hsiao)

異質空間 ； 馬修．尼爾 ； 《英國旅人》 ； heterotopias ； Matthew Kneale ； "English Passengers"

高雄師大學報：人文與藝術類

35期（2013 / 12 / 01）

79 - 91

英文

本文以傅柯異質空間理論解讀馬修．尼爾之《英國旅人》。《英國旅人》處理塔斯馬尼亞原住民對英國殖民者的血腥抗爭，對抗始自1820年代，於1860年代因原住民滅族而終結。尼爾採用二十一個觀點來質疑歷史真相，並且藉由想像與虛構填補歷史的空白。傅柯視異質空間為對抗的場域，足以顛覆中央集權的一言堂。《英國旅人》中重疊或並置的異質空間凸顯尼爾對基本人道精神的態度，異質空間挑戰現有的社會模式，同時開啟各種嶄新的可能性。傅柯式閱讀不僅闡明異質空間的要旨，也證實尼爾重建十九世紀塔斯馬尼亞歷史的意圖。

This paper explores Matthew Kneale's ”English Passengers”, using Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopias. ”English Passengers” addresses the Tasmanian Aborigines' bloody confrontations with the English colonizers starting from the 1820s through their extinction in the 1860s. Kneale adopts twenty-one perspectives in the novel to question the ”truth” of history; he makes up for the absence of truth mostly through his imagination and invention. As Foucauldian heterotopias are counter-sites which subvert the totalizing regime of centralized narratives and domains, I argue that the overlapping or juxtaposition of heterotopias in ”English Passengers” reveals Kneale's attitude towards certain fundamental principles of humanity. Heterotopias challenge the existing social order, but they also open up all sorts of new possibilities. A Foucauldian reading of ”English Passengers” can not only illustrate the gist of heterotopias, but also substantiate Kneale's intention to reconstruct his version of the 19th-century Tasmanian history.

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