潛態過去與實存現在：多麗絲•萊辛《希卡斯塔》中的宇宙記憶

Between Virtual Past and Actual Present: Cosmic Memory in Doris Lessing’s Shikasta

本文旨在探討萊辛在《希卡斯塔》中如何綜合兩種與記憶相關的敘事。小說中，主角喬荷對希卡斯塔記錄的正當性產生質疑。藉著猩猩、巨人與宇宙能量的幫忙，他探索並改變看似客觀的個人記憶，因而也進入宇宙記憶。德勒茲對於柏格森記憶理論的解釋與延伸可以幫助我們理解萊辛對記憶所持的雙重觀點：一邊是實證的個人記憶，另一邊則是保存於大腦之外的潛態記憶。本文認為小說的主要意義與這個雙重觀點有關：個體可以透過宇宙能量超越心理記憶，進入綿延的潛態生命，介入宇宙記憶的檔案母體－宇宙心智。藉由宇宙能量之助，萊辛筆下的角色可以與萬物共存其中的宇宙記憶互動，並進而參與潛態宇宙的演化。如此，我們將可以說明《希卡斯塔》的非個人化敘事並不指向集體主義政治，而是透過潛態宇宙來解決政治問題。

This paper examines Doris Lessing’s creation and conjoining of two narratives regarding memory in her 1979 sci-fi novel Shikasta. When the protagonist Johor becomes skeptical of the accuracy of his personal records of Shikasta, he, aided by the ape, the Giants, and the Lock, is able to explore and even modify impersonal memory, thus symbiotically revising cosmic evolution. Gilles Deleuze’s appropriation and extension of Bergson’s concept of memory is applied to decode Lessing’s dual vision of memory: empirical, personal memory on the one hand, and ontological memory that preserves itself outside the brain, on the other. Johor’s task epitomizes such a dual vision which comprises the gist of the novel. This article shows how such a vision transcends limitations of psychological memory so as to facilitate intervention into cosmic memory, sometimes called an “overmind.” Aided by the Lock, Lessing’s character tunes into the virtual cosmic past, interacts actively with ontological memory and participates in the evolution of the virtual cosmos. This reading explores how Lessing’s turn to the impersonal in Shikasta is not an endorsement of totalitarianism but rather a way to overcome politics by resorting to the ontology of a virtual cosmos.