劉宏《鵲橋》中的空間、地方、與氣味

Space, Place, and Scents in Liu Hong’s The Magpie Bridge

本文研究華裔英國作家劉宏的小說《鵲橋》，由空間、地方、與氣味三個議題展開討論。《鵲橋》是一部關於衝突、協商、與和解的作品，結構上為雙聲敘述，二位敘述者分別為年輕的中國留英學生驕梅及其已過世的祖母鐵梅，雙聲敘述中空間與地方的再現，足以闡明二人分歧的價值觀與態度。花園是小說中顯著的意象，花的氣味因而成為營造地方的重要角色。全文分三部分：首先討論花園作為地方的特性與特質，以空間與地方理論來檢視小說中隨處可見的花園。接著分析敘述空間與身分認同的關係，敘述空間兼具實體背景與想像情境，與身分認同關係密不可分。最後一部分介紹氣味地景這一概念，並且探討氣味、情感、與地方的相關性，研究發現小說中的花香不但喚醒記憶並且深化地方意識。

Centering upon space, place, and scents, this paper reads British Chinese writer Liu Hong’s The Magpie Bridge as a text about confrontation, negotiation, and reconciliation. The novel unfolds with double narratives. One narrator is Jiao Mei, a young Chinese woman studying in London; the other narrator is Tie Mei, Jiao Mei’s deceased grandmother. The representations of space and place illustrate conflicts in values and attitudes embodied in the double narratives. With the garden as a distinct image, floral scents play a decisive role in the making of place. The discussion consists of three parts. The first part deals with the attributes that characterize the garden as a place. The theories of space and place are employed to investigate the gardens that permeate the novel. When space is invested with meaning, it becomes an arena where humans scrawl their signatures and make their comments. The second part analyzes the relationship between narrative space and identity. A mix of both physical and imaginary contexts, narrative space is relevant to the construction and reconstruction of identity. The third part introduces the concept of smell scape to examine the relationship between smell, emotion, and place. It is found that floral scents in the novel not only revive memories but also sharpen the sense of place.