〈與寶嘉康蒂的湖邊景色〉：戰後德國的迷因轉生

“Lake Scene with Pocahontas”: Meme and the Cultural Refiguration of Postwar Germany

納粹政權是納粹政權，但納粹培養出來的納粹因子是一種迷因，而且是複製力強大的那種。這個迷因在納粹政權瓦解之後仍然揮之不去，持續在戰後進行從一個大腦傳到另一個大腦的複製過程，甚至導致戰後德國文壇陷入特殊的失語現象。唯有離開納粹創造出來的文化環境，讓新的迷因有機會進入迷因池與舊迷因競爭，才有逐漸取代原有主流迷因的可能。
面對納粹遺留下來的文化環境與持續繁衍的納粹迷因，戰後德國作家施密特（Arno Schmidt）的短篇小說〈與寶嘉康蒂的湖邊景色〉（“Seelandschaft mit Pocahontas”）展現了透過語言創造「出走」的可能性。在小說中，施密特用語言編織出一段走出原有環境的故事，不斷「玩梗」，最後以新的迷因成功稀釋了曾長期支配德國人心智的納粹迷因。
本文以道金斯（Dichard Dawkins）與布拉克莫（Susan Blackmore）的「迷因」理論作為論述基礎，分析這部小說各種「玩梗」的橋段，進而揭示語言如何從被污染的文化環境中找到重生的途徑、如何以新迷因對抗舊迷因，以及如何擺脫迷因盲目複製所導致的災難。

The Nazi is a regime, but the Nazi-cultivated‘Nazi factor’is a kind of meme, and a highly replicable one at that. This meme did not disappear with the collapse of the Nazi regime but continued to replicate from one mind to another after the war, even producing a peculiar phenomenon of aphasia in the post-war German literary world. Only by stepping outside the cultural environment created by the Nazis could new memes have the chance to enter the meme pool and compete with the old, thereby gradually replacing the original mainstream memes.
In the face of the cultural environment left by the Nazis and the still-replicating Nazi meme, the post-war German writer Arno Schmidt (1914-1979) in his novella“Lake Scene with Pocahontas”demonstrates the possibility of creating an“escape”through language. Schmidt crafts a story that moves beyond the original environment, continuously“playing with memes,”and ultimately succeeds in diluting the Nazi meme that had dominated the minds of Germans with new memes.
This paper will draw on the“meme”theory of Richard Dawkins and Susan Blackmore as its basis for discussion, analyzing various“meme-playing”scenes in the novella, thereby showing how language can find a way to rejuvenate itself from a contaminated cultural environment, and how new memes can combat old ones, and how the narrative attempts to break free from the disastrous consequences of blind meme replication.