生命定位三棱鏡： 論張惠菁小說〈蒙田（Michel de Montaigne)筆記〉

Life Orientation: The Text as the Prism of Life in Hui Ching Chang’s Notes on Montaigne

張惠菁（1971-)，台灣新銳作家。1997年以中篇小說〈蒙田筆記〉獲得中央 曰報文學獎。此後持續創作、頻頻獲獎而極受文壇矚目，是新生代「知性書寫」 的重要作家。〈蒙田筆記〉的主題是「我為什麼活著？」，一個千古艱難的大哉問。 這條混沌奥秘的問題光束，滲入了既迷離又清醒的小說文本三稜鏡，折射出幾縷 色澤鮮豔而高反差的生命光譜。這些生命光譜試圖探索人生的意義與方向。在跨 越千禧的世紀之交，〈蒙田筆記〉是當代生命定位的一個深湛又有奇趣的探究範 例，引發筆者深究的興味。因此，本文參照文藝復興時期法國作家蒙田（Michel de Montaigne)《隨筆集》中的思想，論述小說〈蒙田筆記〉的基底問題及生命光 譜。文中聚焦於幾個重要議題：蒙田的隱逸文人的人生哲學、研究生的理性批判 的「生活非美學」、胡媛媛的後現代的「娛樂道德」，以及這三種生命色澤的重疊 與扞格之處。小說中這三個主要角色分別探索智慧、思想、身體三種生命方向， 有人已定位，有人未完成。蒙田的生命已定位於《隨筆集》這一「立言」三不朽， 因而在本文的結語中，筆者認為《隨筆集》的生命智慧或可為仍為生命困惑的小 說角色指引出一條安身立命之道，從而展開認知自我、定位生命的旅程。

Notes on Montaigne， a novella written by a new Taiwanese writer， Hui Ching Chang (1971-)， won the Prize of Literature sponsored by the Central Daily News (1997). Afterwards， she continued writing， won a number of prizes frequently， and received great attention in literary circles， finally becoming one of the intellectual writers in the new writing generation. Notes on Montaigne concerns the question of “why I live，” a sophisticated and key question asked through the ages. Through the absurd and sober refraction of the text as the prism， the opaque and mysterious question beam is refracted to wide-range life spectrums of flamboyance and high contrast. These spectrums investigate the meanings and orientations of life. In the transition of millenniums， Notes on Montaigne makes a profound and fantastic exploration of life orientation that truly fascinates me. Therefore， this paper explores some fundamental questions and analyze a few life spectrums in relation to some ideas mentioned in Essais， written by Michel de Montaigne， a Renaissance French writer. This paper focuses on the following issues: writer Montaigne’s philosophy of life， the graduate student’s analytical non-aesthetics of life， Yuanyuan Hu’s postmodern morality of entertainment， and the overlappings as well as discrepancies between the three tones of life. The three protagonists explore three distinct life directions——wisdom， reasoning and physical satisfaction. One positions firmly while the others do not. Through writing Essais， Montaigne positioned himself firmly in the writing profession， and left his wisdom for generations to come. In conclusion， I argue that the wisdoms in Essais can guide the confused characters to a path of righteous life， thereby leading them to embark on a journey of self-recognition and life orientation.