If realistic fiction inevitably obliterates the truth it seeks to represent, can it undermine the object of its critique? I consider this question by reading closely Taiwan in Ruins by Song Zelai and Ground Zero by Yi Geyan. I begin by introducing radiation and nuclear fiction with semiotics and reading paradigms with the postmodern crisis of representation. Thereafter I consider the temporal narrative structure of each novel with the conventions of diary fiction, the scales of nuclear physics, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Finally, I discuss representations of mass media and atomic discourse and link them to the opening notes on semiotics and reading postmodern fiction. In each stage of the study I situate the novels into a constellation of literary criticism, historical anthropology, reportage, and protest literature. To conclude, I suggest that despite the postmodern crisis of representation, realistic fiction seems capable of undermining the object of its critique, which in these novels are the dangers of corruption, media manipulation, and nuclear energy development.
如果寫實小說無可避免地掩蓋了它所欲呈現的真相,那麼它是否能達成其所要批判的目的?我藉由精讀宋澤萊的《廢墟臺灣》和伊格言的《零地點》來思索這個問題。我首先透過基本符號學來解釋輻射和核能小說並以不同閱讀典範來解釋後現代書寫危機。接著經由日記小說特徵,核子物理規模及創傷後壓力症候群來探討兩本小說的時間敘述結構。最後討論小說對大眾媒體及原子的話語書寫,並連結到文章開頭提及的符號學及閱讀典範。在每一個階段的研究,我將這兩本小說與文學評論,歷史人類學,報導文學及抗議文學相提並論。論文總結發現僅管存在著後現代的書寫危機,寫實小說仍具有批判的功能。在這兩本小說裡,它清楚指出了貪污,媒體操控及核能發展的危險。