鹿野忠雄的《山、雲與蕃人》(1941)主要記錄鹿野1931年的台灣高山行旅,此部作品現在被認為是台灣現代自然書寫的傑作,於塵封一甲子後再度出版並譯為中文,見證台灣社會複雜的政治、經濟和文化變化。對這部戰前作品的重新評價,反映了在地和全球社群對環境破壞的憂慮、公民社會對資本主義意識形態的反省、台灣內部對召喚歷史記憶的努力、以及自然寫作者對生態問題的終極關懷。本論文從「自然」本身出發,探討鹿野文本中台灣自然的現代知識建構與美學表現,為了瞭解書中自然的各種細微理念,本論文將分兩大部分進行討論:日本帝國的科學發展與鹿野獨特的旅行書寫模式。第一部分討論台灣自然博物學的現代知識形成,與西方和日本的科學發展之間的關係。第二部分著重在鹿野的自然中心思想與文本的美學分析,並探討這樣的思想和美學如何轉化甚至超越殖民者對台灣山林和原住民的「野蠻」想像。
Kano Tadao’s With Mountains, Cloud and Aborigines (1941) is primarily a record of Kano’s travels in the mountains of Taiwan in 1931, and is considered a masterpiece of Nature Writing in Modern Taiwanese Literature. The fact that this text now has been translated, reprinted and republished after having disappeared for sixty years bears witness to the complex political, economic and cultural changes in Taiwanese society during that period. Re-evaluation of this pre-WWII work reflects the local and global communities’ anxiety about environmental destruction, civil society’s introspection on capitalist ideology, Taiwanese society’s efforts to retrieve historical memories, and Nature writers’ ultimate concern with ecological problems. Focusing on "Nature" itself, this paper examines the historical construction of modern knowledge and aesthetic expression in Kano’s writing. To explicate the nuances of nature in his work, the discussion is divided into two parts: the Japanese Empire’s development of science and Kano's unique travel writing style. The first part examines how modern knowledge of natural history in Taiwan has been formulated in relation to Western and Japanese scientific development. The second part analyzes Kano’s ecocentric approach and literary aesthetic, which finally transforms and transcends the colonial imagination of "barbaric" Taiwanese mountains and aborigines.