從認知的邊緣出發：德希達和摩里森的文學秘密

Movement from the Edge of Knowledge: Literary Secrecy between Jacques Derrida and Toni Morrison

本論文並讀德希達（Jacques Derrida）與摩里森（Toni Morrison），討論兩人一系列與「秘密」相關的著述，包括德希達的〈應／答：秘密〉（1991b）、〈熱情〉（1992）與〈秘密裏的文學〉（1999b），以及摩里森的〈認知深邃〉（1985）、《戲耍黑暗中》（1992）、諾貝爾獎領獎演說（1993）與〈時間的未來〉（1996）等，希望能重新理解「秘密」的涵義，並進而思索「文學」與「秘密」相生共濟的關係。論文主張，不管是摩里森提出「戲耍黑暗中」的文學創作概念，還是德希達強調文學作品之動能與「單一效應」，兩人都不以「秘密」為認知障礙或思考侷限；相反的，摩里森關注文學想像如何接受「秘密」召喚，在「秘密」意義晦暗不明的時空中「流變探索」，而德希達更清楚地主張文學「源出秘密」、文學「回應秘密」，以指向未知、即將到來的思維向度。德希達關注沒有先驗內容的「秘密」；他說文學能夠「保密」，不是要文學刻意隱藏知識，而是要文學發揮其虛構、意義浮動的「文學性」，保留「秘密的秘密」、「秘密」未知的彈性。德希達這樣的想法，與摩里森的論點多有相通之處。兩人不約而同點出「秘密」打開認知開口，開啟「時間未來」的潛力，也同樣主張從文學敘事裏找到「秘密」的生機，從認知的邊緣展開行動。

This essay reads Jacques Derrida and Toni Morrison side by side, with a view to meditating on the meaning (or non-meaning) of the secret, and exploring literature’s symbiotic relationship with secrecy. Reading a series of Derrida’s and Morrison’s works related to the topic of ＂the secret,＂ which include Derrida’s ＂Responding to/Answering for: The Secret＂ (1991b), ＂Passions: ‘An Oblique Offering’＂ (1992) and ＂Literature in Secret＂ (1999b); and Morrison’s ＂A Knowing So Deep＂ (1985), Playing in the Dark (1992), her Nobel Lecture in Literature (1993) and ＂The Future of Time＂ (1996), I argue that secrecy does not pose an epistemic obstacle or hermeneutic limit to either Morrison or Derrida. Rather, comparing the process of literary creation to ＂playing in the dark,＂ Morrison finds in the darkness of the secret a threshold time-space of literary ＂becoming,＂ while Derrida explicitly advocates the idea that literature is ＂in place of the secret＂ or literature ＂responds to the secret＂ in order to drive forward a future dimension of avenir. Derrida is concerned about a secret that hides nothing, a secret without depth. For him, literature is capable of keeping (the life of) the secret not because literature has to conceal knowledge but because ＂literarity＂ makes literature as unfathomable and elusive as the secret in relationship to meaning. Contentions like these find strong resonance in Morrison’s works. Indeed, both Morrison and Derrida seek in ＂the secret＂ the force to cut open existing cognitive systems; both also consider literary practices valuable as long as these practices are able to ride on the cognitive opening of the secret for generating movement from the edge of knowledge.