「少年Pi的奇幻漂流」的後現代解讀

A Postmodern Reading of Life of Pi

少年Pi的奇幻漂流」是Yann Martel於2002年所寫的奇幻小說，內容敘述16歲的印度少年Pi，在舉家移民加拿大的途中遭遇沈船。他靠著信仰，在救生艇上漂流227天後奇蹟生還，唯一的同伴是原先動物園內飼養的老虎。不同於一般的劫後餘生之故事版本，「少年Pi的奇幻漂流」深具後現代主義於真實和主體兩方面的省思。Pi對於客觀真相和主觀虛構之間的二元對立，提出了後現代的批判。另外這本小說也彰顯了多重主體的事實。本文的目的在以後現代的觀點探討這本書的深義。內容分兩部分，第一部分探討客觀真相之不可得。語言文字無法客觀精準的傳達真相，這和新歷史觀不謀而合。第二部分分析主體的多重不確定性，由Pi和老虎及廚師的複雜關係可一窺端倪。此部分將引用後結構主義的理論來印證。本研究深具意義之處在於發掘此暢銷書背後所隱藏的後現代哲思。在當下以科學的客觀性為主流論述的環境中，這篇解讀能提提醒我們，真理和主體都是社會建構的主觀性產物而已。

Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel written by Yann Martel in 2002. It depicted how an Indian boy survived a shipwreck by drifting on the lifeboat with a Bengal tiger for 227 days. More than an intriguing survival story， this novel involves the postmodern critique on truth and subjectivity. It debunks the binary hierarchy of truth and fiction， and highlights the fact of unfixed subjectivity. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the deep meaning of Life of Pi from the postmodern perspective. The contents will be divided into two parts. The first part explores the inaccessibility of truth through language. Pi’s different stories highlight the construction of truth， which is in accord with New Historical criticism. The second part discusses the multiple subjectivity as embodied in Pi’s ambiguous relationship with the tiger and the cook. For this part， the poststructuralist philosophy on subjectivity will be applied. This research is significant in that it detects how a best-seller implies the profound theory of postmodernism. While scientific objectivism has become the dominant discourse in today’s world， this reading arouses the awareness that truth and identity are subjective social constructs.