本文試圖透過《山海文化》雙月刊舉辦的「第一屆山海文學獎」(1995)和「第一屆中華汽車原住民文學獎」(2000),來討論目前原住民文學所面臨到的困境。並且,特別著重於論證一個後殖民文學的重要課題:弱勢族裔文學如何分裂/依附(cleave)於主流文化。具體地說,原住民文學在與主流文化對話的過程中,經常為了自我主體的建構,而不斷地與主流文化「分裂」,但同時,卻又不得不繼續「依附」著主流文化的語言或文本形式。畢竟,弱勢族裔主體的建構還是需要被看見,才有可能進一步取得主流文化的承認。如此一來,透過原住民自組籌辦的文學獎及其評審過程,不只可以清楚地呈現出,弱勢族裔與主流文化之間的角力,更可以開展「原住民性」所具有的消亡/再生的辯證向度―而這也就是去思考「弱勢族裔的文化存活可能」的重要課題。
The prestigious ”Taiwan Indigenous Voice Bimonthly” launched two literary prizes Taiwan Indigenous Voice Prize and China Motor Corporation Indigenous Literature Prize in 1995 and 2000. Through an analysis on both prizes, this article explores the ethnic struggle of indigenous literature over aesthetic value. First, in challenging the forms of literary and aesthetic hierarchy that exist between majority and minority writers, although the prizes aimed to emphasize special aspects of 'history of tribe' in order to break down the category of major literature, the judges did little to question their own aesthetic assumption that was strongly influenced by the majority. Second, in the effort to grant indigenous literature, paradoxically, the imagination of the indigenous as the 'Other' was embodied for the effort given by a large portion of Han ethnic judges. Through the investigation of the indigenous literary prizes, it is clear to see how the prizes presented as an ongoing negotiation between the major and the minor literature, and at the same time the prizes also produced a dialectic in which the 'indigeneity' developed between disappearance and emerging.