會議簡介

中研院中國文哲所古典文學研究室重點計畫 (2021-2023)，「書頁邊緣：中國書籍史與文本政治」，採取某種「邊緣」眼光，從中國書籍的副文本 (paratext) 入手，層層遞進，特別關注文化研究與文本政治相關課題。

「政治」向來是一種動態，關涉人群、治理、以及社會場域中各方力量拉鋸、協商的樣態。書籍文化及書寫媒介，作為影響各方社會力作用的要素，經不同文化行動者 (cultural agents) 運用，可傳播訊息、建構知識、形塑意義、論辯是非，乃至鼓動情感，轉化思維。資訊的開放，擴大社會參與，但同時刺激欲望，眾聲喧嘩。視野的擴張，啟動認識自我，想像世界的新可能，但同時也加劇價值衝突，暴露人性黑暗。開放與管控，揚聲與緘默，正學與逸樂，建構與斷裂，真理與卮言之間的競爭張力，在各類書籍形式內外，書寫文本的正文和罅隙之間，留下豐富的印記及痕跡。本計畫即是期望透過探索書籍世界的萬千風貌，體探內中所蘊涵政治社會及文化心理變化的軌跡，考察盛世與惡境，榮景和亂象交織模稜的複雜關係。

在此思路下，規劃三個子題：一、「抵巇：中國書籍史上的副文本」，結合文獻學、文學制度及文化研究方法，審視副文本 (paratext) 的外緣性，由邊緣勾畫疆界，界定體系，其建構、擾動、翻新閱讀的力量。二、「惡之華：文本縫罅及其幽闇背面」，扣緊「惡」、「文字獄」、「隱微寫作」三個層面，探索書籍生成、傳播、銷毀與種種「力」（政治、經濟、社會乃至暴力）之間的關係。三、「說真話：文本、真理與權力」，從傅柯 (Michel Foucault) 式的主題——文本與規訓社會 (disciplinary society) 的關係出發，觀察中國書籍的文本形式與文學類型，剖析當中使用的話語 (discourse) 。這些觀點將有助於開發中國書籍史的新面向，發掘許多長久被忽視的文本，並且在字裡行間發展微觀權力學的解釋面向，強化中國文學研究的人文關懷與批判反思。

子題可包括：

書籍與閱讀：書籍形式如何引導閱讀，傳播信仰，介入知識生產，形塑感知模式？作為一種兩面刃，書籍如何普及教育，又如何暗藏危險？如何致病，如何療癒？圖像、聲音、乃至氣味在閱讀認知的過程中如何作用？性別在閱讀內容、方式、讀者預設、作者自我形塑等議題上，扮演何種角色？跨文化語境如何影響書籍的改造、重製與解讀？

書籍與城市生活：出版活動與城市經濟密切關聯。書籍如何引入、轉介文明新知？如何引誘、挑逗追求享樂、墮落、縱慾的人性陰暗面？如何助長青樓聲色繁華，同時杜騙警示，提供城市生活指南？

書籍與幽闇意識：再深入人性內心幽闇處，哪些書籍形式、評點、語法之「怪」，其實透露出夢囈、懺悔、潛意識、偽裝、壓抑、遮掩、影射等介於可說與不可說，能說與不能說的話語姿態？

書籍、啟蒙與禁毀：革命、戰爭、暴力（及其合法化）與書寫、文字媒介的運用，關係至深。書籍與文字獄（黨禍、廠衛、迫害、焚書、禁燬、隱微寫作）乃其中面向之一。書籍史視野是否可能針對惡與暴力、革命倫理等問題，提出深刻反思，協助進入文本內外與字裡行間，有效解釋文本與權力意志的深刻關聯？

書籍與新型治理技術：借用傅柯對於權力及自我技術的思考，宋代以降逐漸大量產生的程課、功過格、讀書法、日記、醫案、供狀等簿記表格和記錄形式，以及徵文、花榜等社會活動，當中觀看與權力的複雜關係，自我技藝(techniques of the self) 的內化（包括自傳、自畫像、作者肖像、年譜、回憶錄的寫作與製作），能否藉由書籍史方法得到更深切的分析？

What do texts do? How do they effect change, in different times and places, and at different stages in the cultures of writing and print? If, as Michel Foucault points out, “every technique of production requires modification of individual conduct——not only skills but also attitudes,” how do the technologies of writing and text production interact with people’s lived experiences as individuals, as social beings, and as political subjects?[1]

These questions can be explored on many levels. For authors and publishers, how do writing, design, and packaging affect the reception of a text? For the general reader, how might the reading experience change one’s understanding of the self, and of one’s place in society, the state, and the outside world? For those readers who become editors, commentators, and re-writers, how might the literary activities of remaking facilitate self-expression, social critique, psychological probing, and cultural reinvention? If acquiring information and knowledge through reading is a form of empowerment, when might the ruling elite enlist the power of books to aid education, and when might they try to hold it in check? As effective media for dissent, criticism, and subversion of the status quo, how might dissidents use books to engage the state in a tug of war?

In place of a “content-oriented” approach, this conference highlights the potential of a marginal stance, seeking to explore the interplay between peritextual components and the main contents of books, between books and the societies in which they are produced, circulated and utilized, and among the competing forces which not only shape or contend with the meanings of a text, but also alter the visions and senses of readers, and, at times, effect actual change in reality.

Specific topics may include, but are not limited to:

Books and reading

How does the material form of a book guide readers, transmit beliefs, intervene in the production of knowledge, or create modes of feeling? Aren’t books a double-edged sword, capable of educating their readers but also endangering them, bringing healing but also illness? How do images, sounds, and even scents affect the reading process? What role does gender play in the content of texts, in ways of reading, in reader expectations, or in authorial self-representation? How do books change when they are reproduced, altered, or interpreted in interlingual contexts?

Books and urban culture

How does publishing, even as a commercial activity, mediate new knowledge? How does it “enlighten” the reader, opening one’s eyes and minds? How does it seduce them to experience decadence and dissolution, the dark side of human nature? What relation do books have to the urban entertainment quarters—as a guide into the world of desire and sensual pleasure, or as a warning to those who would venture there? 

Books and “dark consciousness”

Deep in the human soul, what strange bibliographic forms, idiosyncratic comments, or stylistic quirks serve to reveal hidden thoughts, fantasies, a sense of guilt, repressions, secrets, or insinuations—matters that may not be spoken of, yet must be, that cannot be said aloud, yet demand to be?

Books, enlightenment, and (self-)censorship

There are deep relationships between revolution, war, violence (sanctioned or unsanctioned) and media of the written word. For instance, the various kinds of literary inquisition one finds through the history of premodern China. How does a book history approach address these topics, bringing together reflections on what happens in and around the text to unveil the deep relationships between texts and power?

Books and technologies of power

Drawing on Foucault’s ideas about power and technologies of discipline, can a book history approach help us critically reflect on the various textual (e.g., curricula, ledgers of merit and demerit, reader’s guides, diaries, medical casebooks, court confessions) and social (e.g., literary competitions, “flower registers” that rank courtesans for public viewing/reading) media that manifest the relationship of observation and power?  

[1] Michel Foucault, “Technologies of the Self,” in Luther H. Martin, Huck Gutman, and Patrick H. Hutton eds., Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault (University of Massachusetts Press, 1988), p.18.