Repositioning "Asia"-The Problematics of Liminality and Transpacific Imaginary in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictée

求索「亞洲」：閱讀車學敬《聽寫》的閾境性與跨太平洋意象

劉于雁(Yu-Yen Liu)

《歐美研究》 42卷3期 (2012/09) Pp. 497-534

https://doi.org/10.7015/JEAS.201209.0497

摘要

南韓近代境遇與其地緣政治、冷戰美蘇對峙息息相關。以冷戰議題重思亞裔美國研究可凸顯帝國、種族、政治符號操縱如何肇始、形塑今日「美國」與「亞洲」概念。本論文循此脈絡閱讀韓裔美籍女作家車學敬的《聽寫》：爬梳文本中南韓與歐亞帝國主義、殖民霸權的糾葛，剖析這異質混雜文本的「閾境性」與「跨太平洋意象」如何串接、嵌鑲、構築，求索「亞洲」。即，探求思索「亞洲」作為政治勢力交鋒、斡旋場域背後的歷史殊異與意識形態。《聽寫》是個跨太平洋的族裔故事、「隱喻」「紀實」更迭，也是個「非此、亦非彼」，既「離索」又「趨近」身分認同嘑隙迴游的「閾境」書寫。其兼容卻悖反的「亞洲」描摹，指涉「亞洲」論述非侷限於探討亞裔性之弔詭或何謂亞洲之論戰；而是關乎「亞洲」作為論述交錯、或扞格、或協商之軸域如何左右亞－美政治文化意義生產之洞見觀瞻。

關鍵字

冷戰 ； 閾境性 ； 跨太平洋意象 ； 亞洲 ； 亞裔美國研究

並列摘要

This paper intends to posit the importance of thinking through historical specificities as instrumental to understanding the particularities and ideologies that constitutes ”Asia” as site of negotiation and intervention. This paper contends that a (re-)investigation of the Cold War discourse will make visible the imperial logic and shifting historical stakes under and through which the threatening presence of U.S. hegemony in Asia invites a careful reexamination of the invention not only of ”American” but of ”Asian.” Viewed in light of this argument, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictée is both a complicating text that illustrates historically how the present (East) Asian American identity and culture are preconditioned by American empire and Japan's imperialist past, and an intriguing text that metaphorically cultivates the problematics of liminality and transpacific imaginary. Cha uses mixed media to convey the very intricacies of the interrelated discourses on Korean identity, Korean American, and the transpacific imaginary of ”Asia.” As such, to analyze Dictée within the context of the Cold War discourse is to call attention to the hidden narratives and complex textualization that underlie the dichotomized understanding of ”Asia.” In reading this subtle and abstruse text alongside the Cold War politics, this paper then addresses the issues of how ”Asia” becomes the very site where various kinds of forces converge, intertwine, and hybridize, and where new ways of making meanings have been engendered and called into question.

並列關鍵字

Cold War ； liminality ； transpacific imaginary ； Asia ； Asian American Studies

參考文獻

Bella, A.(2008).Asian American literature.Edinburgh, UK:Edinburgh University Press.

Cha, T. H. K.(2001).Dictée.Berkeley, CA:University of California Press.

Cheng, A. A.(1998).Memory and anti-documentary desire in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictée.MELUS.23(4),119-133.

Chuh, K.(Ed.),Shimakawa, K.(Ed.)(2001).Orientations: Mapping studies in the Asian diaspora.Durham, NC:Duke University Press.

Chuh, K.,Shimakawa, K.(2001).Orientations: Mapping studies in the Asian diaspora.Durham, NC:Duke University Press.