「晚了！……我們是加倍的、三、四倍的晚了」：貝克特的《落下》與晚期現代主義的思辨

＂Late!... We are Doubly Late, Trebly, Quadrupedly Late＂: Late Modernism in Samuel Beckett's ＂All That Fall＂

本文透過探討山繆‧貝克特（Samuel Beckett）的首齣廣播劇《落下》（All That Fall）與詹姆斯‧喬伊斯（James Joyce）的小說《青年藝術家的畫像》（A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man）的文本相關性，以檢視貝克特的劇作《落下》與晚期現代主義（late modernism）之關連。本文闡述《落下》與《青年藝術家的畫像》著墨的落（fall）、失（loss）元素，以及彰顯的頓悟（epiphany）主題，提呈這兩部作品之間的相似與差異性，以勾勒晚期現代主義中，傳承與改造的雙重功能。學者在定義貝克特文學作品，產生現代主義（modernism）以及後現代主義（postmodernism）兩大主流的歧見；然而，在界定貝克特為現代主義或是後現代主義時，文本往往根據該作者的小說或舞台劇等較廣為人知的文類，而鮮少針對他的廣播劇來論述。為此，本文旨在藉由探討貝克特的首部廣播劇如何傳承或創新喬伊斯所代表的現代主義風格，並藉此提呈「晚期現代主義」這相對較新、且尚未有完整定義的概念，以期突破現代、後現代主義二分法的僵局。

This paper seeks to explore late modernism in Samuel Beckett's first radio play All That Fall (1956) by examining its textual affinities to James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). I will address the thematic issue of modernist epiphany by working through the elements of fall and loss in both texts, and determine that Beckett's work can be profitably regarded as late modernist-a distinctive style that grows out of and goes beyond modernism. Applying literary-periodizing terms to Beckett's work is a prevalent trend, and the concepts of modernism and postmodernism dominate Beckett studies; however, this practice is hardly ever directed at his radio drama. I shall therefore seek a way beyond that binary impasse by working with the newer notion of ＂late modernism＂ in relation to Beckett's All That Fall, and propose a limited model to reassess the Joyce-Beckett relationship through to Beckett's practice of rewriting Joycean elements. I seek to examine the double functions of late modernism that both succeed and transform modernism based on an examination of the Joyce-Beckett relationship and then explore how Beckett's radio play is in crucial respects indebted to as well as a departure from Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.