貧窮的人類世：試以《無家者》定位文學中的貧窮論述

Poor Anthropocene: Life Stories of the Homeless in Taiwan and the Discourse of Poverty in Literary Representations

《無家者》（2016）為近年出版的類文學貧窮敘事，以訪談敘述的形式，呈現十位無家者與五位社工的生命故事。從聯合國永續發展目標把「消除貧窮」列為首位看來，亦顯示在經濟成長之下伴隨的貧富差距擴大，成為棘手的問題。然而過去關於貧窮議題的探討，多半集中在社會科學領域，以量化統計、分類並標籤化的方式尋求解答，卻可能忽略貧窮者本身所發出的聲音。而當今在「人類世」的探討中，關於人類在地層中造成的「銘刻」，大多專注在氣候變遷與經濟過度開發造成環境破壞的議題上，缺乏人類社群本身的探討；但其實人類世除了生態層面的探討，亦包含將人類視為共同體的前提，因此，當我們重新思考文化「記寫」（inscription）的意義，即可能將生態關注轉向至人類社群本身的關懷，從而在消除貧窮跟環境保護之間取得平衡。本文將從人類世所探討的智人的演化、去暴力、社群化的過程，以及其在地層中造成的銘刻，連結至底層社會如「根莖」（rhizome）般的橫向結構。而《無家者》即是將形塑「根莖」的一個個生命，以證言的形式，記寫貧窮者既具韌性卻又任性勃發的生命故事。本文認為，《無家者》採取的路徑，是向下挖掘以呈現其錯綜複雜且強韌的根莖結構，而不是透過「樹狀圖」的方式，將議題系統化。亦即，證言文學探討的不是傳統社會科學與量化統計所欲尋求的顯著性，而是透過考掘的方式，有意識地將「問題」呈現在世人眼前。一個個貧窮者的生命，看似孤立，但又蔓生、滋長，透過紀錄與閱讀被連結起來，形成一片「底層社會」複雜、茁壯的根莖地層，而這根莖又連結至閱讀者，與整個社會產生互動；除了文學形式本身，在資本主義社會的實質構成中，「底層社會」亦紮實地扮演社會根基的角色。本文欲透過《無家者》之證言文學及其相關哲學思考，試圖將原本被統計量化、分類與標籤化的看待方式，重新解放與轉向至關注生命本身，乃至底層社會：無論是個體生命，或是整體根莖串連所內涵與展現的韌性。

Life Stories of the Homeless in Taiwan (2016) is a quasi-literary reportage of the poor, recently published in Taiwan. It adopts the form of narrative interview, telling the life stories of 10 homeless figures and 5 social workers. The fact that the United Nations places“No Poverty”at the top of the Sustainable Development Goals also shows that the growing gap of wealth inequality under economic development has become a thorny issue. However, past discussions of poverty were mainly located within the field of social science, with methodologies of calculating, taxonomizing, and labeling in search of the answers. This orientation of discussion tends to neglect the voices of the poor. In addition, current discussions of the Anthropocene, about human-made“inscriptions”on the Earth’s layers, primarily focus on the climate change and environmental damage caused by economic overdevelopment, and lack the discussions about human community per se. Nevertheless, in fact, discussions on the Anthropocene, aside from ecological aspects, also include the premise that regards human beings as a community. Therefore, when we revisit and reconsider the meanings of cultural“inscription,”it becomes possible for us to reorient the care of ecology to the care of the human community, and strike a balance between eradicating poverty and protecting the environment. This article will explore themes including the evolution of Homo sapiens, reduction of violence, socialization, and the inscriptions of the Anthropocene, in connection to the horizontal structure of the underclass as a“rhizome.”Life Stories inscribes the resilient and capricious lives of the poor, which weave the“rhizome,”in the form of testimony. In this sense, the course taken by Life Stories is to excavate the complicated and robust structure of the rhizome, rather than systematize the issue with the method of“tree diagram.”Viz. testimonial literature contrasts with statistical significance that traditional social science and statistics seek for. Instead, the reportage’s methodology of archeological excavation consciously and conscientiously presents the“problematic”to the public. Individual lives of the poor, which seem solitary, but sprawl and grow, were interwoven by ways of recording and reading to form a complex and vigorous rhizome of the underclass, and the rhizome hinges with potential readers and interacts with the whole society. In addition to literary forms, in the substantial structure of the capitalistic society, the underclass also sturdily plays the role of social bedrock. This article attempts to emancipate and reorient from the methods of statistical quantification, taxonomizing, and labeling to the focus of lives themselves through discussing the testimonial reportage of Life Stories and related philosophical contemplations. This literary genre helps link to, rather than divide from, the underclass, where vivid lives dwell, and frame the homeless rhizome with the society as a whole.