論「後–後現代越智英雄主角」：以柯爾曼小說《記憶之書》為例

On the“Post-Postmodern Transing Dementia Hero”: A Study of Rowan Coleman’s The Memory Book

本文整合文學批評家巴蒂斯蒂（Chiara Battisti）提出的「後-後現代主角」（post-postmodern hero）理論架構，與社會學者西爾弗曼及巴理爾（Marjorie Silverman and Alexandre Baril）建構的「越智」（transing dementia）論述，創建「後-後現代越智主角」（post-postmodern transing dementia hero）之分析框架，以解讀當代英國作家柯爾曼（Rowan Coleman）小說《記憶之書》（The Memory Book）中失智主角克萊爾（Clare）的生命敘事。「後-後現代越智主角」理論框架突破傳統對失智者的單向詮釋，凸顯其「敘事主體」與「受難主體」的雙重辯證性存在狀態，既展現主角克萊爾在失智中拓展多重主體流變的能動性，也真實呈現記憶流失所帶來的存在困境。柯爾曼藉由克萊爾的生命軌跡，不僅刻畫失智者面臨生命支撐頓失的恐懼，更透過多重主體性（multiple subjectivity）的動態交織──克萊爾作為母親、女兒、配偶、獨立女性與失智者等多重社會角色──展現其在病程中不斷衝突、協商與重構生命意義的歷程，揭示失智者多層次之生命故事。因此，「後-後現代越智主角」這一創新概念具雙重理論意涵：在學術層面，促進文學批評與社會學研究的跨域對話；在社會層面，開創理解失智現象的新視角。克萊爾的生命故事揭示，即使在記憶逐漸流失的境遇中，失智者仍能以多重之主體角色持續建構生命意義，並開展超越病理框架的多元生命敘事。

This essay brings Chiara Battisti’s theorization of the“post-postmodern hero”into dialogue with Marjorie Silverman and Alexandre Baril’s framework of“transing dementia”to examine how Rowan Coleman’s The Memory Book reimagines its protagonist, Clare Armstrong, as a figure who negotiates agency, identity, and life meaning within the experience of Alzheimer’s disease. Through the character of Clare, the novel constructs what may be termed a“post-postmodern transing dementia hero.”Clare embodies this hybrid subject position by destabilizing conventional dementia narratives and articulating fluid, emergent modes of selfhood that take shape amid the existential challenges of memory loss. Coleman’s portrayal traces not only the impact of dementia on personal identity but also its experiential complexity, as revealed through her shifting and intersecting roles as mother, daughter, spouse, independent woman, and person with dementia. The theoretical implications of the“post-postmodern transing dementia hero”thus operate on two levels. Academically, the framework bridges literary criticism and sociological inquiry through interdisciplinary synthesis. Socially, it reconfigures cultural perceptions of dementia by proposing a more nuanced and compassionate interpretive model. Clare’s life narrative demonstrates that individuals with dementia can continue to construct meaning as multiple, intersecting subjects, even amid the disorienting experience of memory loss caused by Alzheimer’s disease, thereby challenging the pathologizing frameworks through which dementia is conventionally understood.