Absolutely Postcolonial?-Singular Relationality, Comparability, and Walcott's Tiepolo's Hound

絕對後殖民？：從沃克特《提也波洛之犬》談獨一關係性與比較性之問題

陳春燕(Chun-yen Chen)

《歐美研究》 40卷1期 (2010/03) Pp. 65-101

摘要

Derek Walcott's Tiepolo's Hound, at a cursory glance, appears to proceed along the lines of racial identity politics. This essay argues that this narrative poem, in effect, articulates some kind of 〞singular relationality,〞 that is, some kind of self-definition that is not predetermined by essentialist categories, of racial or cultural differences, for example. Even if the formations of singularity may be shot through by racial groundings, these groundings, I suggest, should be read as 〞relationality〞 rather than any precedence in time or importance. 〞Relationality〞 refers to relations as the 〞content〞 of an encounter, but also points to the process of forming relations as a problem. In this essay, I first tease out the various 〞relations〞 in the poem, with a view to demonstrating how Walcott revamps old postcolonial themes beyond identitarian confines. As some of the scenarios of relationality presented in the poem strike one as 〞non-relational〞 at first sight, the question of relationality is thus translated into the issue of comparability. From a close reading of this poem, I proceed to touch upon the ethos of comparability with regard to postcoloniality. I hope to show that, more than a thematic idiom, 〞singular relationality〞 also stands as a promising epistemic mode that can help us construe the transcultural encounters in the postcolonial context without falling back into the dubious category of the rational subject or essentializing identity politics.

關鍵字

Derek Walcott ； Tiepolo's Hound ； singularity ； relationality ； comparability

並列摘要

沃克特的敘事長詩《提也波洛之犬》表面上處理的仍是諸如種族身分認同等議題，但本文將嘗試以「獨一關係性」的角度切入，指出該詩如何跳脫一般熟悉的認同政治介面、探究一種不以特定本質或先驗集體身分為依歸的關係──「關係性」除了直指關係的內容，亦將各種關係的形成本身視為一種問題意識的發生。由於沃克特在詩中大量試探各種乍看之下沒有關係的關係可能性，本文將進一步將其引申為後殖民情境的基調，亦即比較之必要、經驗翻譯之必要。而以「關係性」、「比較性」作為思考基礎，將可避開理性主體概念與本質主義式認同政治的盲點。

並列關鍵字

沃克特 ； 《提也波洛之犬》 ； 獨一性 ； 關係性 ； 比較性

參考文獻

Sixteenth-century painting in Venice and the Veneto

Bhabha, H. K.(1994).The location of culture.London:Routledge.

Breslin, P.(2001).Nobody's nation: Reading Derek Walcott.Chicago:University of Chicago Press.

Chakrabarty, D.(2000).Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial thought and historical difference.Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press.

Cocke, R.(2001).Paolo Veronese: Piety and display in an age of religious reform.Aldershot, UK:Ashgate.