從天演到人演：董啟章《愛妻》、《後人間喜劇》中的（後）人類演化與文學機器

From Natural Selection to Human Selection: The Evolution of (Post)Human and Literature Machines in Kai-cheung Dung’s The Beloved Wife and Posthuman Comedy

本文討論香港作家董啟章的長篇小說《愛妻》與《後人間喜劇》。文章首先回溯董啟章小說中的人與物之關係，從文字工場的想像模式、自動人偶的意象與人體機械論的思想，勾勒其近期創作中後人類想像的線索與雛形。意識與身體、精神與物質、身與心的二元問題，是董啟章思考（後）人類演化的關鍵。他雖認同人的意識有離身的可能性，但仍肯定即身／身體的必要性，使其後人類想像猶帶有人文主義的色彩。《後人間喜劇》則進一步由個體擴大到群體，以「康德機器」的演化路徑帶出道德、法治與群己倫理之思，在系統的自由與控制的取捨中，寄託對香港當下現實的關懷。不僅如此，董啟章以模控學與文學相對應，視作家為一台文學機器，在反身性的概念下，藉小說的後設敘述和後設喜劇展現了他對文學與現實的思考。

This article discusses Hong Kong writer Kai-cheung Dung’s novels The Beloved Wife and Posthuman Comedy. It begins by revisiting the relationship between humans and objects in his fiction, outlining a trajectory of posthuman imagination in his recent works through the imagination model of the Word Factory, the images of the automaton, and the mechanistic view of the human body. The dualisms of consciousness and body, spirit and matter, mind and flesh are central to his reflection on (post)human evolution. Though acknowledging the possibility of a disembodied consciousness, Dung affirms the necessity of embodiment and the body, endowing his posthuman imagination with a distinct humanist undertone. Posthuman Comedy further extends the exploration from the individual to the collective, introducing an evolutionary path of the“Kantian Machine”to examine morality, legal systems, and social ethics, and to reflect on the tension between systemic freedom and control. In doing so, his recent novels ultimately express a concern for contemporary Hong Kong. Moreover, Dung builds a correspondence between cybernetics and literature, sees the writer as a literary machine, and through the lens of reflexivity, employs metafiction and metacomedy to articulate his thoughts on literature and reality.