活下來又如何：芬得來「與旅程無涉」中之秩序與失序

Surviving the Either/Or-Deal: Order and Disorder in Timothy Findley's Not Wanted in the Voyage

In the West, the concepts of 'order' and 'disorder' are presented as polar opposites. If these terms are understood as paradigms of social being, the order-disorder dichotomy implies that it is possible for a human subject to make a choice between the two. The intention of this paper is to question the order-disorder dichotomy and the position of dominance that is generally ascribed to the notion of 'order'. More importantly, I will suggest that, viewed in practical and not abstract terms, the moment of choice between order and disorder, far from being transparent, is a forcefully staged one, giving birth to a maimed and traumatized subject. Timothy Findley's novel Not Wanted on the Voyage (1984), which represents a postmodern counter-narrative of the Noah's Arc episode in the book of Genesis, represents the ideal vehicle for this paper's objectives. The techniques that the Canadian novelist deploys in this re-writing, fictionalize and reveal to the reader the ideologically charged process of ordering, dividing, and reshaping of subjectivities that hides behind this grand narrative. Analysis of these techniques will underline Findley's own recognition of the divisive role that 'order' plays in determining who will be allowed to survive the flood and who will not. In other words, my argument will be that Findley's novel insightfully exploits the allegorical nature of its hypotext and illustrates that humans, as historical, gendered and social subjects, are made to go through a journey of passage not towards order but towards ordeal. In this journey, the novel suggests, subjects are required to make a painful deal with power and renounce their own history, language and identity. Drawing on Jacques Derrida's use of Deconstruction in general, and the concept of 'clandestination' in particular, analysis will ultimately place the novel's concerns and thematics within a wider agenda. An agenda seeking to serve, in Derrida's own terms, 'a more unruly, disarmed, naive desire' that is left behind to drown so that established power can survive under the guise of 'order.'在西方，「秩序」與「失序」是相對概念。一般來說我們相信秩序以及失序的概念有助於我們思考並評估我們的社會存有。我們嘗試去改善社會的組織方式時，就會特別聯想到「秩序」的問題。本文對秩序與失序的二元平行論提出質疑，也對秩序擁有優勢地位這個一般性觀點表達不同意見。如果從實務而不從抽象觀點去審視，筆者認為有點很重要，即在秩序與失序之間，我們的選擇往往不但不能透明，而是被迫做出來供觀者觀看，使得主體感受殘缺，並受重創。芬得來的小說《與旅程無涉》利用後現代主義中的反敘述觀點再現聖經中諾亞方舟的故事，看起來就很適切地表現本文這個要旨。在其重寫的作品中，加拿大作者技巧地重構這個故事，以向讀者揭露隱藏在大敘述中的意識形態如何入侵主體意識的順序、區分與重塑過程。分析這些技巧會凸顯芬得來如何認知秩序在決定人在大水患中存活所扮演的關鍵角色。換句話說，筆者認為芬得來的小說以例子提供洞見，運用次文本的寓言性，進而闡述人如何透過其歷史的、性別的、和社會的主體性，而必須在其旅程中經歷苦難與磨練，而不一定就是大步邁向秩序。小說家似乎認為，在旅程中，主體必須向權力妥協，並且放棄他們的歷史、語言和自我意識。透過德西達的解構概念，尤其是他的「暗流」觀念，本文最後還是將小說的關照和要旨放置在更寬廣的議題上。用德西達自己的話來說，這個議題目標在向「一個更狂野、更非武裝、更清純的慾望」交代，讓它能藏匿起來，幫助體制性的權力用「秩序」的裝扮存活。