裂島時間台灣當代科幻小說的災難、時空、身體

"Disassembled Island-Time: Disasters, Temporalities, and Bodies in Contemporary Taiwanese Science Fiction"

本文提出「裂島時間」的概念，試圖說明台灣當代科幻小說中災難、時空、身體的多重交織。「裂島時間」標誌台灣當代科幻小說的特殊性：時常以「變形的台灣島」對應「災難之後的非線性時間」。當災難既斷裂了原本線性進步的時間觀，也改變了台灣島的形貌，從此不只「裂島」上的日常生活有待重建，時間性也有待重構。本文研究高翊峰（1973-）的《2069》（2019）、伊格言（1977-）的《零地點Ground Zero》（2013）、吳明益（1971-）的《複眼人》（2011）三本涵蓋天災和人禍的小說，試圖指出文本所呈現的「裂島時間」如何以多重的時間方向性（迴路的、後退的、糾纏的），挑戰人類中心的現代化常規時間。三本小說不僅皆描繪島嶼變型的後末日景觀，也以島嶼的改變形態對應到人與非人身體和物質的改變形態；繼而，這些被改變形態而偏離常規的身體、物件及它們形構的社會結構，就成了多重時間性的體現。在科幻崛起且後災難（如新冠疫情）的時代，「未來」已經不只是遙遠的時間投射，更是當下的文化政治論述角力。本文期許以「裂島時間」重新概念化台灣科幻，並在全球科幻中定位台灣。

"This paper proposes the term“disassembled island-time”to specify the entanglement of disasters, temporalities, and bodies represented in contemporary Taiwanese science fiction. Disassembled island-time underscores a key characteristic of Taiwanese contemporary science fiction; in many novels, disasters frequently lead to the synchronous transformation of temporalities and the island of Taiwan. More precisely, when a disaster breaks the island of Taiwan apart, the residents’daily lives–along with the linear progressive temporalities they embody - are also fragmented. This work investigates three novels that encompass both natural calamities and man-made disasters: 2069 (2019), by Kao Yi-Feng (高翊峰); Ground Zero (2013), by Egoyan Zheng (伊格言); and The Man with the Compound Eyes (2011), by Wu Ming-Yi (吳明益). In these novels, disassembled island-time is manifested through diversified directions of time, herein referred to as“looping,”“backward,”and“entangled”time, respectively, challenging the norms of anthropocentric temporalities. These diversified temporalities are encapsulated in non-normative human and non-human bodies, objects, and lands that are transformed dramatically by catastrophe. In other words, these works of science fiction not only depict the post-apocalyptic sceneries in which islands are disassembled, but also configure a coherence between the transformation of islands and the alteration of bodies, human–object relations, and social structures. In a time when science fiction is trending and disasters (such as, for example, the Covid-19 pandemic) are prevailing, the“future”is no longer a far-reaching projection of time, but rather the presentation of rivalries among different cultural and political discourses. This paper uses disassembled island-time to reconceptualize Taiwanese science fiction, relocating Taiwan within the upsurge of global science fiction."