逃離獨眼巨人的凝視：談阿里·史密斯〈後生〉中的人類主體能動性

Fleeing from the Cyclops ’s Eye: Exploring Human Agency in the Digital Epoch in Ali Smith ’s “After Life ”

媒體和傳播技術的普及縮短了人際間的距離，也使人們更容易獲取世界各地的最新消息。人們透過螢幕，如電視螢幕、電腦螢幕，甚至手機螢幕上的資訊來認識與感知世界。螢幕作為人類與技術之間的媒介，連結了人與世界，但也同時限制了人們的世界觀於狹隘有限之中。螢幕掌控人們感知和理解世界的方式，使他們逐漸屈服於螢幕背後未知力量所創造的虛構現實中。在這些情況下，喚醒人們重新評估人類在面對媒體技術時的主體能動性成為必要的課題。收錄於阿里·史密斯（Ali Smith）的小說集《公共圖書館和其他故事》(2015)中的短篇小說〈後生〉(“AfterLife”)，描述了數位技術興起前後個人世界觀逐漸縮小和人際關係日益疏遠的過程。通過本篇短篇故事，史密斯描繪了技術與人類之間無法逃脫的共生關係，強調了生活在充滿技術的世界中，人們需要重新找回其主體能動性的迫切性。本文將從弗雷德里克·基特勒（Friedrich Kittler）所提出的「所謂人類」的觀點出發，分析史密斯的短篇小說〈後生〉中探討技術對人類的影響以及兩者之間的相互形成與共生的關係，以及故事中的主人翁（杰拉德）和她的女兒（克洛伊）如何在技術和人類相互形成的過程中重新找回他們的主體能動性。

The widespread use of media and communication technologies shortens the distance between people and gives people more access to the latest news worldwide. People perceive the world through screens, such as TV screens, computer screens, or even the screens of our smartphones. Screens, as a communication medium between humans and technology, allow people to connect with the world, but meanwhile, they also confine people to a limited worldview. Screens manipulate how people perceive and comprehend the world, entrapping them in the fabricated realities invented by the unknown power lurking behind the screens. People increasingly surrender their agency to technology, becoming subservient to its influence. Given these circumstances, the role of human agency in the face of media technologies should be reevaluated. Ali Smith’s short story“AfterLife,”collected in her book Public Libraries and Other Stories (2015), describes the gradual narrowing of the individual’s worldview and the increasing estrangement of our interpersonal connections before and after the rise of digital technologies. Through the story, Smith envisions the inescapable symbiotic relationship between technologies and humans, emphasizing the pressing need to address questions concerning human agency in a technologically saturated world. This paper will analyze Smith’s short story,“AfterLife,”in terms of Friedrich Kittler's idea of the ''so-called human'' to explore the impact of technology on human beings and the reciprocal formation of the two parties, and how human beings, in the case of the story’s protagonist (Gerard) and her daughter (Chloe), reclaim their agency when technology and humans are evolved reciprocally.