凱爾特之「唬」：不可靠的敘事者與當代愛爾蘭國族敘事

Celtic Blarney: Unreliable Narrators and Contemporary Irish National Narrative

後殖民理論提出現代國族概念是由敘事所建構而來，不可靠的敘事者因其顛覆敘事穩定性的特質，則具有提出反敘事來挑戰與反思國族敘事的潛力。本篇文章將探討《大明星亨利》及《傻毛》兩本小說中，小說家如何藉由不可靠的敘事者，挑戰舊有的愛爾蘭國族敘事，引發新的國族想像。兩位主角的不可靠敘事，再再讓讀者懷疑他們在「唬爛」，因而不斷自問是否被「唬弄」，這樣的「凱爾特之唬」，反映愛爾蘭經濟奇蹟的凱爾特之虎年代，愛爾蘭人強烈的自省。不過，隨著凱爾特之虎盛極而衰，兩部「凱爾特之唬」作品與國族敘事對話的態度也有所轉變。《大明星亨利》對過去及歷史的自嘲，充份展現出凱爾特之虎全盛時期的自信，這樣的氣勢則隨著凱爾特之虎的沒落，在《傻毛》中轉為欲言又止的保留。藉由筆下這些不可靠的敘事者與他們的「凱爾特之唬」，愛爾蘭小說家開啟了一個空間來處理眼前棘手的問題：了解當代愛爾蘭這個巨變中的國家，敘述新的愛爾蘭。

Postcolonial theories claim that nations are constructed through narration. Unreliable narration, characterized by its subversion of narrative stability, thus has the potential to provide counter-narratives to challenge established national narratives. This paper will examine how unreliable narrators in Roddy Doyle’s A Star Called Henry (1999) and Ciarán Collins’s The Gamal (2013) offer counter-narratives to challenge the Irish national narrative and engender new imaginings of the nation. Both novels embody the spirit of intense self-reflection made possible to the Irish by the unprecedented economic prosperity of the Celtic Tiger. However, with the rise and fall of the Celtic Tiger, the two novels show different attitudes in how their unreliable narrators engage with the national narrative. A Star Called Henry jokes about the past with the confidence that comes with economic success, whereas The Gamal is marked by reluctance and hesitation, now that the Tiger has fallen. With these unreliable narrators, Irish novelists open up a space for the problematic task at hand—making sense of the rapidly changing nation that is contemporary Ireland, and narrating the new Ireland.