西川滿「糞現實主義」論述中的西方、日本與臺灣

Imagining the West, Japan and Taiwan: A Discussion of Mitsuru Nishikawa's Kuso-Realism Debate

以民族的自／他敘事模式展開文學論爭，或在文學論爭中帶進內／外文化的對峙觀點，是台灣文學歷史發展過程中的一個令人注目的現象，如在七○年代的鄉土論戰中，現實主義與現代主義便是以「本土／西方」及「傳統／外來」的二元對立結構展開，但如此的對峙型態並非僅呈顯於戰後，而是早在戰前「糞現實主義」論爭中便已然可見於西川滿與葉石濤的論述，因此，若要進一步掌握台灣的文學論爭型態的發展過程，則有必要將研究的焦點上溯至戰前的階段。故而本文主要是以西川滿的「糞現實主義」論述為分析對象，指出西川滿的批判焦點雖然是針對台灣的「糞現實主義」作家，然其矛頭更還指向了「西方」這個外來他者的存在。因此筆者試圖從近代日本與「西方」的關係出發，探討其與「西方」對峙的結構究竟如何構成，並分析在如此的對峙當中，西川滿和當時的日本知識份子究竟如何建構有關「日本」或「日本傳統」的論述，以及如何從這帶有民族印記的「傳統」建構中粹練出其「美」學等概念，最後，是更進一步討論，在與「西方」對峙下所建構的「日本」又將如何與殖民地的「台灣」想像產生扞格與矛盾的問題。

Foregrounding the nationalist narrative in literary discussions is one of the most noteworthy aspects of Taiwanese literary history. The best example is the native-modernist contention around the 1970s, from which a dichotomy of ＂traditional vs. foreign＂ discourse was drawn. In fact, drawing upon the nationalist narrative and cultural identity to buttress one's literary standpoints can be traced back to the Kuso- Realism Debate launched by Mitsuru Nishikawa and his assistant editor Shih-tao Yeh during the wartime period. Therefore, in order to grasp the whole picture of the history of literary debates in Taiwan, it is necessary to extend our focus to the Japanese colonial period. This paper seeks to analyze Nishikawa's argument over the Kuso-Realism Debate. It points out that Nishikawa's critique targeted not only the group of so-called Taiwanese Kuso-realists, but also modern Western thought. As a point of departure, this article illustrates the relationship between Japan and the West in modern times. After discussing the formation of the confrontation developed during World War II, it takes a step further to explore how Nishikawa and other Japanese intellectuals constructed their concepts and discourse about ＂Japan＂ and ＂Japanese tradition＂ from a nationalist perspective. Based on the result of the analysis, this paper will finally discuss how those concepts contradict the collective imagination of Taiwanese writers.