席莉．胡思薇《關於未來的記憶》中認知神經科學、記憶與自我的探究

Cognitive Neuroscience, Memory, and Self in Siri Hustvedt's Memories of the Future

席莉．胡思薇（Siri Hustvedt）2019年所出版《關於未來的記憶》為自傳體小說結構，由2017年的當下、年長自我與1978年至1979年的過往、年輕自己之間的對位敘事者形成文本的互文指涉。此一具實驗性、非傳統的自傳體小說透過兩個時間軸的敘事角度、三個敘事觀點的鋪陳，深入探討時間感如何對於個體主體性的自我認知與認同感產生影響。本文由檢視當代認知神經科學與文學研究的跨領域學科觀點基礎出發，探討文學作品如何再現時間感、記憶、自我意識與互為主體性的概念。文章首先論證《關於未來的記憶》為一涵融認知神經科學概念的文學實驗作品，創作內涵涉及當代神經科學研究對於記憶的新發現，詳細闡述了小說中敘述者的情節記憶如何與敘述者的想像力相互作用，並進一步內化形成一個統合自傳體的自我認同。這部自傳體小說交織著事實和虛構，將年輕敘事者擱置的小說創作殘稿和當年日記，與當下老年敘述者的評論並置相互對話，後者以時間感產生的鴻溝距離觀察過去，將多重自我作為研究和敘述評論的對象客體。本文第二部分探討胡思薇如何將「未來的記憶」這一認知科學概念的發現，納入小說的情節鋪陳與哲學詮釋。記憶和想像有著相同的心智歷程，皆是由情感驅動並能夠以書寫創作和敘述的形式實現，而創作與書寫同時也被視為編輯修正記憶的過程，協助敘述者釋放及重新詮釋、再定義過往創傷的認知歷程。最後，本文認為《關於未來的記憶》透過對話性與社群性的背景脈絡進行自我的再定位，強化了自我與他者的關係感及互為主體性。

Siri Hustvedt's Memories of the Future (2019), an autofiction, is structured as a dialogue between the narrator's present, older self in 2017 and her past, younger self from 1978 to 1979. This experimental, unconventional text foregrounds the connections of the two narrators via three narratives to explore the concept of memory, self-consciousness, and intersubjective relationality based on multidisciplinary viewpoints engaged with contemporary cognitive neuroscience and literary studies. First, this paper argues that Hustvedt transforms her work Memories of the Future into a literary treatment of cognition that invites recent neuroscientific research on memory, elaborating on how the narrator's episodic memory interacts with the narrator's ability to imagine and further form an integrated identity of an autobiographical self. Interweaving facts and fictions, this autofiction juxtaposes a young writer's drafts of an abandoned novel and diary pages with the comments of the present-day narrator who observes her past with the distance of time, taking the protagonist's multiple selves as objects of study and narration. The second part of this paper explores how Hustvedt incorporates the cognitive-science concept of ＂memories of the future＂ into her philosophical reasonings and interpretations in the fiction. Memories and imaginations share identical mental processes that are emotionally driven and often actualized in the form of writings and narratives. It is also through writing as a process of re-editing memories that helps the major narrator release her traumatic experience. Lastly, this paper argues that Memories of the Future builds up a sense of relationality by re-positioning the self in dialogical and collective social contexts. This autofiction highlights intersubjectivity and relational identities.