蕭麗紅小說的語言建構與鄉土想像

Language Construction and Regional Imagination in the Novels of Li-Hung Shiao

母語書寫與書寫女人是蕭麗紅小說極其重要的特色。二十年的寫作，蕭麗紅的母語表達日見成熟，尤其晚近的白水湖春夢一作，堪為「台語如何文字化」與「台語能否文學化」的重要檢驗及啟發。二戰過後，結束殖民地命運的國度，積極地以文學創作或文字紀錄等方式來保留母語並薪傳母語文化，這是後殖民文學的珍貴共相。這種用「我的語言」，述說「我的生活」「我的文化」的創作，基本上，就有顛覆威權和宣示自主的意涵。蕭麗紅就是以長篇小說為載具，裝填了台灣小鎮的庶民文化：口語俗話、生活智慧，節令禮俗。這些已融入生活的文化和儀式，透過女人，代代接續相襲，成為文化身分的認同。蕭麗紅述說女人，女人述說習俗，習俗述說鄉土；只要禮俗文化繼續搬演，鄉土就活著。蕭麗紅意圖以「母語」傳襲「文化」重構「鄉土」。但是，重構不等於還原，重構裡，必然富含作者對鄉土的寄情和期待。這種一廂情願，往往透過小說的結構、人物、情節來具體呈現。當蕭麗紅的小說以淨化的語言，無爭無怨的故事情節，「重構」了一個親切純良寬恕救贖的鄉土時，蕭麗紅也同時「虛構」了鄉土。

Writing in mother tongue and writing about women have been two significant features in the novels of Li-hung Shiao. Over twenty years of literary career, her mastery of using mother tongue has been fully recognized, especially shown in her recent works of Bai Shuei Hu Chuen Meng( 白水湖春夢), a brilliant piece for examination and inspiration in the way of turning spoken Taiwanese language into the form of written text and literature. After the WWⅡ , with the end of colonial rule by Japan, how to maintain the heritage of mother tongue and pass down its culture through literary and documentary writing has been a valuable phenomenon of post-colonial literature. Such literary creation by using “my language” to narrate “my life” and “my culture” basically, implies the declaration of self-autonomy and subversion of authority. Shiao fills up the vessels of her long novels with regional cultures of small towns in Taiwan --- vernacular and dialects, wisdom of life, customs, feasts and festivals associated with the signs of zodiac. Such cultures and rituals, represented in daily lives from generation to generation through her women, have become a basis of cultural identity. Shiao narrates her female characters; her female characters live up to their customs; and their customs bring out localism. Localism lives on as long as these customs and rituals keep staying on the stage of daily lives. Shiao intends to reconstruct localism by way of the representation of culture in mother tongue. Nevertheless, reconstruction does not lead to restoration. In her reconstruction, there always carries a hint of longing and expectation toward localism, which is vividly revealed through the structure, characterization and plots of her novels. When her novels reconstruct a local culture of kindness, innocence, forgiveness, and salvation through the purified language and the serene mood of the stories, she also constructs fictitiously a local culture herself.