扣擊者、電報員、鬼：從媒體考古討論狄更斯的鬼魂敘事

Rappers, Telegraphists, and Ghosts: Rereading the Ghost Stories of Charles Dickens via Media Archaeology

在前啟蒙概念中的「鬼」仍具有人的個體性，即，肉身死去後，鬼仍保有生前的記憶與人格特質，故可被視為是記憶與性格的殘存；然而十九世紀的召魂術與電報技術有助於我們從物質性的角度來重新檢視鬼，在本論文中我將嘗試說明從新的「靈的技術」所產生出來的鬼，不再是個體生命的殘留，而是一種非線性、非個體的流。本論文將取徑媒體考古學的方法，說明維多利亞時期召魂術與電報不但瓦解了以人為中心的「作者」概念，同時也重塑了鬼。狄更斯對當時傳憶技術的痴迷更反映在其鬼魂敘事當中，我將透過《聖誕鈴聲》、〈鬼訪的男人與鬼魅交易〉，以及〈號誌員〉來說明其作品中靈的技術如何形塑現代的鬼。

As the “spectre of the self,” the ghost implies the individuality of a person in the pre-Reformation era. After the decease of the body, the ghost still keeps the memory and personality of the deceased person. Therefore, it can be regarded as the remains of their traits and personhood. In this paper, I would like to point out that ghosts are produced by the “technologies of spirit.” The nineteenth century spiritualism and telegraph, I will argue, are the new technologies that produce ghosts which are similar to a non-linear, nonindividual, and non-human flow. Adopting the method of media archaeology, I will trace how the “technologies” of spiritualism and telegraph decentralized both authorship and anthropocentrism. Hand in hand, they went so far to restructure the modern ghost. Moreover, often noted for his craze for cutting-edge technologies, Charles Dickens wrote his ghost stories with Victorian hypomnemata in mind. In this essay, A Christmas Carol, “The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain,” and “The Signal-Man” will be investigated to illustrate how the individuality and personality that used to indicate old ghosts have been liquidized and dehumanized into a flow of modern ghosts.