當「推理」謀殺「偵探」──一個大眾文類方法論的思考起點

When “Mystery” Murders “Detective”: A Rethinking of Methodology of Popular Genre Fiction

作為在跨國脈絡下發展的台灣推理文學，不論是對類型的認知、文本的歷史脈絡、甚至書寫的典律，都是透過外國作品的翻譯與接受而獲致。然而在這個類型的歷史發展過程中，因應於不同時代書寫核心的轉移，以及類型內部自我翻譯與知識的重組，西方跟日本各自演化出不同的命名與定義。但台灣自1980年代之後，卻朝向選擇「推理小說」此一概念的定型化發展。因此本論文透過考察1980年代出自《推理》雜誌及其他日本翻譯小說的評論與引介文章，試圖釐清「推理小說」此一名稱與概念，是如何被引進，並取代日治時期既成的「偵探小說」類型認知，促成類型知識話語的轉換與重構。這表面上看似單純命名的轉換問題，卻可能是理解這整套推理文學論與小說史觀如何跨國挪移、翻譯、更易的關鍵，並對既有大眾類型文學的研究方法，提供新的想像可能。

Developed in a transnational context, Taiwan's mystery literature has acquired its adaptation to the genre, its historical underpinnings, and even its writing canon through the translation and reception of foreign works. Nevertheless, over the course of the genre's historical progression, Japan and the West developed separate terminologies and definitions due to divergent core transformations in narrative over time, as well as issues related to self-translation and the reformatting of knowledge within the genre. In contrast, Taiwan has moved towards the development of a more static concept of ＂mystery fiction＂ since the 1980s. Thus, by analyzing the reviews and introductions in Mystery Magazine and other Japanese translated novels published in the 1980s, this study aims to clarify how the label and concept of mystery fiction was introduced and eventually replaced the then-prevalent genre of detective fiction established during the Japanese Colonial Period, which led to the transformation and reconstruction of genre discourse. This seemingly innocuous change in name may be the key to understanding the transnational transferal, translation, and transformation of the entire set of theory surrounding mystery literature and its historical view. It may also provide a new starting point from which to consider existing research methodology for the genre of popular literature.