1987年以來台灣後殖民小說

Abstract

This paper deals with Taiwanese postcolonial fiction since 1987. Beginning with the historical context, I point out that Taiwanese fiction since 1987 is dominated by postmodernism and postcolonialism and characterize postcolonialism as distinct from postmodernism. Then I discuss how Minnan, Hokka, and Aboriginal writers rewrite the official history of the Kuomingtang (or Chinese Nationalist) government, which reigned from 1949 to 2000, and reconstruct native historical memories which had been suppressed and silenced, memories about their trauma under colonization as well as their negotiation with and appropriation of old and new colonialisms. I also deal with a few fictions written by descendents of Mainlanders who came to Taiwan in 1949, fictions which show a leaning toward postcolonialism. I show how these fictions, written by the four major ethnic groups of Taiwan, reconstruct national and ethnic identity from a Taiwan-centered point of view and disrupt or deconstruct the dominant (Taipei) metropolitan way of thinking. This paper is divided by such themes as the 2-2-8 tragedy and the Reign of White Terror, Aboriginal, multiple colonization and multi-ethnicity, transnationalism, rewriting the city, and indigenization of descendents of immigrants from Mainland. Though postcolonial politics is the main concern of this paper, I also discuss the aesthetics of these fictions.