在《分析日常生活與文化理論》(Everyday Life and Cultural Theory: An Introduction)一書中，英國文化研究學者海莫爾(Ben Highmore)曾以「垃圾美學」(trash aesthetics)一詞形容班雅明(Walter Benjamin)的唯物歷史論以及獨特的歷史書寫方式。本文嘗試以班雅明所提出的垃圾美學觀來探討洛依(Arundhati Roy)的小說《微物之神》(The God of Small Things)。本文強調洛依的《微物之神》主要是以一對異卵雙胞胎的童年敘事鋪織南印度複雜交織的後殖民史。透過班雅明的唯物歷史論點，包括他處理歷史書寫時關於歷史、拾荒與辯證圖像等觀點，文章檢視小說中關於童年、日常事物與歷史的關連，討論小說的童年敘事如何經由「在場」與「不在」，「現在」與「過去」，「歷史」與「記憶」的辯證關係，書寫南印度後殖民社會多重、瑣碎的另類歷史。論文首先闡釋班雅明的垃圾美學(trash aesthetics)，特別是日常生活中過時廢棄物與歷史書寫的關係。接著，討論洛依如何在《微物之神》的童年敘事中闡釋班雅明所提出的辯證圖像(dialectic image)，經由常遭成人忽略的廢棄物和兒童玩具召喚歷史、彰顯廢棄物的歷史辯證性。本文主張《微物之神》的童年敘事是宏大歷史裡個人記憶累積與感情壓抑的所在，而廢棄物與過時廢棄玩具的敘寫，展現了時間與物質之間微妙的辯證，屯積了置疑、鬆動社會階級的動能，也透露了日常生活的另類歷史經驗。

This essay aims to look into the childhood narratives of Arundhati's Roy's The God of Small Things in terms of what Ben Highmore calls trash aesthetics. Highmore suggests that Walter Benjamin's approach to history is through ”trash”-through the spent and discarded materials that crowd the everyday. By drawing upon Benjamin's theories of history, ragpicking, and dialectical image, the paper explores the connection between childhood, everyday life, and history addressed in Roy's novel, investigating how the childhood narrative is woven by the images of trash objects through the dialectic between presence and absence, present and past, history and memory in order to piece together alternative histories of a postcolonial society. The first part of the paper sheds light on Benjamin's trash aesthetics, particularly his theories of historiography and trash objects. In the second part, the childhood narrative of The God of Small Things is read along with some of the theoretical insights that have been developed by Benjamin to examine how the ruins and old toys conjure up heterogeneous temporalities hidden in the everyday life of Ayemenem. Through an intertextual reading of childhood in the novel, the paper highlights the dynamics of childhood narrative in the literary negotiation with the trash objects as exemplified in Arundhati's Roy's The God of Small Things.

Agamben, Giorgio(1993). Infancy and History: On the Destruction of Experience .London:Verso.

Google Scholar

Barsamian, David,Roy, Arundhati(2004). The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy .Cambridge:South End Press.

Google Scholar

Benjamin, Walter,Zohn, Harry(Trans.)(1989). Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism .London:Verso.

Google Scholar