摘要

出生於斯里蘭卡，擁有荷蘭血統，並且在英國、加拿大等地受教育的作家麥可．翁達傑，在二○○○年出版的小說《安尼爾的鬼魂》一書中，充份發揮其多元文化背景所累積的跨族群、跨國族意識，深入討論其祖國斯里蘭卡於一九八○年代中期至一九九○年代初期所經歷的政治紛亂問題。在小說中，翁達傑以其獨特的藝術手法描述一場對抗未知敵人的戰爭、一個可能謀殺無辜百姓的極權政府，以及一群遭受苦難的民眾。本篇論文一開始概述斯里蘭卡過往的殖民歷史以及現今的去殖民過程，試圖回顧小說所處之特定社會及歷史脈絡。在討論種族分類及社會歧視等殖民政策所遺留下的印記之後，本篇論文將目前的斯里蘭卡內戰視為過去各種虛構族群之間紛爭的延續。
以安德森「對照幽靈」的觀念為基礎，本篇論文提出「安尼爾的鬼魂」並非專指任何特殊個體或屍體，而是一群錯綜複雜的影像及人物之集合。這些在安尼爾腦海中接續出沒的「鬼魂」，來自於她在斯里蘭卡的童年時光以及在西方世界的成長經驗。根據巴利巴爾對種族主義和國族主義相互關係之研究，本篇論文認為「歸鄉遊子」安尼爾不時處於過去和現在的夾縫之中，受困於斯里蘭卡獨立建國之後所施行的「對內種族主義」及「對外種族主義」之間。因此，她必然受「鬼魂」所侵擾，必得時常見證「對照幽靈」：一種同時近看又遠觀的詭異經驗。

Abstract

Coming from a Dutch-Ceylonese family, educated in Sri Lanka, England, and Canada, Michael Ondaatje develops from his multicultural experiences an interracial and international consciousness that flourishes in his latest novel Anil’s Ghost (2000). Set against the historical background of political upheaval engulfed in Sri Lanka from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, the novel represents in Ondaatje’s unique artistic way a brutal war against unknown enemies, an authoritarian government under suspicion of murdering its innocent civilians, and a suffering people. Tracing back to the specific social and historical context of the novel, this thesis begins by outlining the general history of the colonial past and by mapping the ongoing process of decolonization in Sri Lanka. With specific reference to the colonial imprint of racial categorization and social discrimination on the island, this thesis reads the current civil war as a continuation of the previous conflicts among fictive ethnicities and racial communities.
In the light of Benedict Anderson’s insightful observation on the spectre of comparisons, this thesis proposes that “Anil’s Ghost” is not a fixed entity or a particular dead person but a complex assemblage of haunting images and memorable figures that surface one after one from Anil’s childhood memory in Sri Lanka and adulthood experience in the west. With respect to Etienne Balibar’s studies on the relations between racism and nationalism, this thesis argues that “the prodigal” Anil has constantly been caught between the past and the present, between the internal racism and the external racism in the nation formation of the post-independence Sri Lanka. Consequently, she is inevitably haunted by the Ghost, that is, the spectre of comparisons—the “strange experience” of simultaneously seeing things “close up and from afar.”

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