跨界失落？：奈波爾小說中的移民與遷移隱喻

The Problematics of Border-crossing: Migrants and Migrancy in V. S. Naipaul’s Fiction

本文探討奈波爾四本主要小說《模擬人》（The Mimic Men, 1967），《大河灣》（A Bend in the River, 1979），《抵達之謎》（The Enigma of Arrival, 1987），與《世間之路》（A Way in the World, 1994）中的移民角色以及跨界游移的爭議得失。本文援引詹姆士‧克里佛德（James Clifford）、伊恩‧錢博斯（Iain Chambers）、霍米‧巴巴（Homi K. Bhabha）等的相關見解，剖析奈波爾小說中栩栩如生銘刻的各種移民經驗並特別著墨於有關「根源」（roots）與「路徑」（routes）所代表的遷徙隱喻象徵。遷徙是當今族裔離散、文化認同糾葛與身分歸屬困惑的肇因，跨界游移／翻譯經驗涉及的是對變動世界的重新協商和身分認同的重塑，也是奈波爾寫作不曾間斷或缺的尋求；奈波爾作品的廣度與深度也在此彰顯。

This paper reads V. S. Naipaul's novels—The Mimic Men (1967), A Bend in the River (1979), The Enigma of Arrival (1987), and A Way in the World (1994)—to explore the figures of migrants in relation to the problematics of border-crossing. The way Naipaul inscribes in his works the experience of (re)locating identities is examined alongside the theory formulated by James Clifford, Iain Chambers, Paul Gilroy, and Homi. K. Bhabha. This paper lays special emphasis on how Naipaul's fiction negotiates the tension between 'roots' and 'routes.' Migrancy as a controlling metaphor not only accounts for the complex phenomenon of cultural displacement and the inevitability of movement of peoples in his fiction but also highlights the inter-/trans-cultural translation that his protagonists encounter. This paper then affirms Naipaul's achievement in his metaphorizing of migration as a strategy of identity negotiation in our changing world.