貝克特戰後劇作與非人：人類世下的選擇

Beckett’s Postwar Plays and the Nonhuman: An Alternative to the Anthropocene

本文旨在探討貝克特二次世界大戰後創作的戲劇，作為討論機器義體與機械化概念的研究文本。研究透過非人論述探問人類世之下，人類將面臨何種挑戰。二次世界大戰是研究文本非人論述的關鍵歷史依據，一方面由於作者在二戰後開始進行大量且跨科技媒體的創作，另一方面考量人類世同時誕生於二十世紀中葉，而二戰對此產生了重大影響。討論分為二部分，首先聚焦《克拉普最後的錄音帶》與《鬼魂三重奏》，探討文本中出現多元非人機器義體的運用與功效。在多樣的人文主義觀點下，先排除了超人類主義、與後人主義於貝克特文本討論的妥適性，以拉攏人與非人之間的差異。其次，依據去人性主義的理論架構與人即非人的隱晦暗示為基礎，研究聚焦《來來去去》與《四方形》這二部戲劇作品，探討人物表現出機械化數學演算法，何以彰顯克萊斯特〈關於傀儡戲〉一文中提呈節約與優雅的觀點，實現最小數值的排列組合以締造最大效率、效力與潛力。本研究側重貝克特戰後戲劇中的非人特質並且提倡其精髓，為了能夠在人類世下重新思尋人的地位以及在人文基礎價值的議題上，提供不同的選擇。

This paper focuses on Samuel Beckett’s post World War II plays to study the prosthesis of the machine and the mechanical, in order to rethink the role of human through the discourse of the nonhuman in the Epoch of the Anthropocene. The Second World War is an important indication and threshold for the study of the nonhuman, partly because Beckett is impressively prolific in his exploitation of multimedia for creative impetus in his postwar work, and partly due to the concomitant initiation that the Anthropocene makes its impact. The discussion is two-fold: first, I will focus on Krapp’s Last Tape and Ghost Trio to explore various treatments, applications, and efficacies of nonhuman machines as prostheses. Ruling out transhumanism and posthumanism as fitting camps of humanisms to accommodate Beckett’s work, I will then move on to explore the characters’mechanical manifestation of mathematic algorithms in Come and Go and Quad, based on a dehumanizing framework to devise an analogy that humans resemble nonhumans. I shall invoke Heinrich von Kleist’s“On the Marionette Theatre”to discuss the economy and grace in both plays, and to examine how Beckett creates maximum efficiency, impact, and potentiality through permutations of minimum elements. Highlighting the quintessential nonhuman quality of Beckett’s postwar plays can shed light on the essence of the humanities, and offer an alternative to reassess the position of human beings and the value of humanity in the Anthropocene.