晚期中古英文寫作與文化記憶／繼譯

Memory and/in Translation: Vernacular Cultural Poetics in Late Medieval England

討論中古英國文學時，除了傳統記憶的議題外，拉丁文識文化系統下方言語言合法性所衍生的文化記憶問題也同樣重要。在拉丁文正式文書記憶傳統的主導下，選擇甚或是標榜以英文從事寫作與中世紀晚期當下的方言文化思維表述有關鍵的連動關係，更是富含創發意義的文化記憶表現。為探究文化記憶的重要意涵並彌補相關研究之不足，本文先以十四世紀晚期英文詩作《名人堂》與《珍珠》為例，分析詩中如何勾勒出個人與文化記憶的爭競空間，並以記憶行止啟動修辭發想的文化再造場域。詩中運用記憶作為知識與創發力的來源，並以駁雜的視覺性戲劇式展現方言寫作與權威文典的遭逢和斡旋，以及視見之侷限與力量。晚期中世紀文化對視覺感官也時而抱持曖昧態度，或是標榜聖經文本的聖言權威來挑戰方言翻譯之正當效力。論文因此接著討論拉樂派偶像破除與聖經翻譯所凸顯文化記憶的衝突對抗，並探究記憶、方言翻譯與文化再創的關聯。有鑑於文化記憶是重建過去與期望未來的動力所在，對於文化記憶的進一步研究，有助於深入了解激發晚期中古英文寫作的社會文化動能與思想活力，也可促使台灣學界思索自身文化記憶所可能帶出的關鍵意涵。

The significant emergence in late medieval England of vernacular writings against the backdrop of the prestigious Latinate textual culture calls attention not only to problems of memory and textual politics then facing English vernacular culture but also to the crucial relationship between vernacular writing/translation and cultural memory. The paper first examines how ”The House of Fame” and ”Pearl” unfold contested sites of personal and cultural memory whose multifarious dynamism occasions vigorous cultural reinvention and vernacular translation. With memory as the source of knowledge and creativity, the visual texts dramatize the vernacular poet's confrontation with canonicity and the limits and strengths of his cultural imagination. Late medieval culture, while according primacy to the Bible, also harbored a fundamental ambivalence that challenged visual/sensual dominance and vernacular translation of the Word of God. The paper then argues that Lollard iconoclasm and Bible translation attest to forceful practices of cultural memory. Reflecting on the vital link between past, present and future in cultural memory, the paper concludes with the suggestion that the issue of cultural memory and translation offers important insight into the intellectual energies of vernacular writings in late medieval England and, when taken seriously, may have a decisive impact on medieval studies in Taiwan.