從新媒體研究看文學與傳介問題

In and Out of New Media Studies Mediation as a Literary Question

以網路、智慧通訊、數位影像、擬真科技為主要關注對象的新媒體研究，近十數年蓬勃發展；與其議題連動但出發點、方法大相逕庭的媒介考古學也闢出針對媒介科技的獨特思辨路徑。本文藉由檢視這些新興媒體理論，尤其它們對媒介、傳介的說法，探究文學研究者能夠從中獲得的啟發。文章先介紹新媒體研究幾個代表性理論家如何看待媒介問題，繼而轉入該領域中特別從本體論角度切入的傳介觀，再則鎖定數位文學研究對媒介的理解。之後焦點移至媒介考古學，以及受其啟發所出現的媒介式文學分析法──一套受到當代媒介理論影響而生成的文學觀。文末則回到文學領域本身對傳介有過的討論。本文以為，當代媒體、媒介論述有助敦促文學人正視文學本身的媒介性，挑戰文學再現論的侷限：文學的媒介性，涉及範圍不僅止於文字呈現所借助的媒材，而是關乎班雅明語言哲學所闡釋的「（不）可溝通性」：在溝通過程中，曝現各語言符號系統界限的（不）可溝通性，卻也是不斷促成語言表達的驅力。以語言做為媒介的文學，直接碰觸溝通界限命題，一再演繹「傳介是個問題」此一真相──這或是新媒體時代文學人在反省文學當代意義時可以思索的問題。

This article examines some of the prominent strands in new media studies and media archaeology, in particular their conceptions of medium and mediation, in the hope of pondering the relevance of literary studies in the age of digital media. The article begins with analysis of major architects in new media studies, followed by discussion of the thread of inquiry in the field that understands mediation ontologically, and followed further by a look at the study of digital literature. The article then moves on to media archaeology as well as an emerging literary method inspired by the field, which I would like to term medial literary analysis. In conclusion, the article returns to literary studies to see how it has approached the question of mediation and how it may gain from the concept of mediation developed by contemporary media studies. I argue that this journey into media theory can help the literary field come to recognize the mediality of literature in a broader sense, broader, for instance, than merely considering the physical properties of the medium being employed in literary creations. Building on Walter Benjamin’s philosophy of language, which broaches the constitutive incommunicability in communication, my article suggests that, as a medium defined by language proper, literature’s self-imaging today can start by looking at the relationship between mediation and communicability.