頻頻回首、感覺倒退：《鹽之書》中的酷兒親密地理

Looking Backward, Feeling Backward: Geographies of Queer Intimacy in The Book of Salt

在《舊約．創世記》第十九章，羅德妻子在逃難中回頭望天火焚城而變成鹽柱的故事已成為一則警世寓言，一方面揭露了懷舊的危險性，另一方面也顯示出同性戀在現代進步論述中被當成需要超克或忘卻的落後過去。在越裔美籍作家莫妮卡．張的小說《鹽之書》中，鹽扮演著貫串小說主題的重要元素，它除了是越南廚師阿彬做菜時看似平凡實則如畫龍點睛般的提味品，也象徵著移工阿彬從西貢漂洋過海到巴黎的跨國離散經驗，以及與家鄉別離的淚水與憂傷；此外，不斷回憶愛情的阿彬，其耽美與繫戀過往的程度如同頻頻回首的鹽柱之妻；因此，鹽也暗示著阿彬的同志情慾，以及肉身交纏的大汗淋漓，及其不願投身線性進步「直時間」的倒錯／退情感與對酷兒時間的執迷。最後，鹽代表的是勞力的汗水，指涉成就西方現代性中的隱形殖民勞動史；史坦著名的文藝沙龍及其標榜的白人現代主義美學，是如何奠基在廚子阿彬所象徵的族裔身體及其形而下的勞力，也將是本論文關心的面向。以上這些探討親密／全球、懷舊與酷兒性的理論養分，將汲取自海澀愛、駱里山、伍德堯、高比娜絲等酷兒及離散學者的理論，旨在召喚出正典線性歷史外的卑賤魍魎，發掘當今酷兒自由主義中所遺忘的他者與其骸骨。

In Genesis 19, the story of Lot’s wife who looks back longingly and is thus turnedinto a pillar of salt has become an allegorical warning against the danger of nostalgia. Italso links homosexuality with a sort of backwardness that needs to be disavowed orovercome. In Monique Truong’s The Book of Salt, salt plays an important role weavingseveral themes into the fabric of the story. It not only refers to the food seasoning thatBinh, Gertrude Stein’s Vietnamese cook, uses to boost flavor in everyday cooking, butalso signifies his ocean crossings and the tears he has shed for the sake of homesickness.Like Lot’s wife who cannot let go of the past, Binh, obsessed with memories and pastlovers, becomes a prisoner of the past. Salt is also associated with the erotic taste ofbodies engaged in homosexual intercourse and, thereby, with Binh’s backward emotionsand his refusal to acquiesce to dominant “straight” temporality. Lastly, salt is intimatelybound up with sweat and labor, which remind us of the racialized labor history madeinvisible in the official narrative of modernity. The paper concerns how the fame of Stein,her Paris studio, and the particular modernism she represents obscure their embeddednesswithin racialized or colonial condition. Drawing upon theoretical work of Heather Love,Lisa Lowe, David L. Eng, Gayatri Gopinath, and others, this paper aims to call forth theghosts abjected by the normative history of linearity and to excavate those skeletons andremnants forgotten by contemporary queer liberalism.