當代臺灣小說中的後現代美學與階級意識

Postmodern Aesthetics and Class Consciousness in Contemporary Taiwan Fiction

本文主要以1980年代末期、受到後現代美學思潮影響的當代臺灣小說為討論對象，思考透過文學文本所表達出的「階級意識」。本文首先討論的是對於資本主義體制的「誤識」，也就是在當代臺灣小說中，人們為何無法理解自己真正的階級利益、為何接受自身在資本主義生產關係中被統治的現狀。其次，透過當代臺灣小說中對於生活風格、消費主義的高度嚮往，我們也能觀察到，「後現代文類」有著強烈的階級性格，後現代美學常常首肯了中產階級對於物質財富的追求。第三，本文也試著分析臺灣後現代小說中的「愛情敘事」，該文類中對於浪漫愛情的追求，同時也負載了對於階級流動的樂觀嚮往，這也能夠解釋，為何「後現代小說」常常在認知到階級分化現象的同時，卻沒有發展出對此現象的批判。最後，我們要處理的是較宏觀的「歷史」問題。當代臺灣小說那種強調後設與解構的後現代美學，其實也質疑了社會主義思想所通向的解放政治，從而合法化了以進步與發展為名的資本主義歷史過程。整體而言，臺灣小說中的後現代美學，儘管敏銳地辨認出了臺灣社會的經濟性格與階級不平等，但是後現代文類對於臺灣社會的階級關係，仍持有某種保守的態度，其觀點是：一方面，結構面的不平等還是能夠透過個體努力來克服；另一方面，階級不平等則是歷史進步的必然產物。

This article is a meditation on the ＂class consciousness＂ as expressed in literary texts by examining the contemporary Taiwan fiction under the influence of postmodern aesthetic movement in the late 1980. First of all, I discuss the misrecognition of capitalist institutions, namely why people fail to truly understand their class interests, as well as why they tend to accept their own status quo of being governed in the production relations in capitalism. Next, through the intense longing for consumerist lifestyles revealed in contemporary Taiwan fiction, we can make the observation that the ＂postmodern genre＂ not only has its strong classism but postmodern aesthetics often approves of the bourgeois pursuit of material comfort and wealth. Third, this article also seeks to analyze the narratives of romantic love in Taiwan postmodern fiction, in which the pursuit of romantic love reveals the optimistic longing for social mobility. This explains why postmodern fiction, while cognizant of class division, often fails to critique this phenomenon. Last but not least, the macro issue of history will be addressed. In contemporary Taiwan fiction, the very type of postmodern aesthetics that emphasizes self-reflexivity and deconstruction also questions the emancipatory politics toward which socialist thought opens, thereby legitimatizing the historical process of capitalism in the name of progress and development. Overall, while the postmodern aesthetics in Taiwan fiction accurately identifies the economic character and class inequality of Taiwanese society, the postmodern genre still holds a certain conservative view that on one hand, structural inequity can be overcome through individual effort and, one the other, class inequality is a natural consequence of historical progress.