刑罚·历史·人性：《在流放地》与《檀香刑》刑罚叙事比较研究

Penality·History·Humanity: A Comparative Study of the Penal Narrative in In the Penal Colony and Sandalwood Sentence

摘要: 刑罚作为政治上层建筑的表现形式之一，其叙事以异质、暴力的方式深刻介入社会治理形式与人性、意志的再生产。作为对社会运作的介入文学，卡夫卡的《在流放地》是现代主义小说文坛中具有典型刑罚书写的深刻意涵文本，得以启发并为莫言的《檀香刑》承继。刑罚缘起与产生是所处历史语境与人性的必然交互，并于不同文化背景下产生不同的反意志生产。借助哈贝马斯的现代性社会理论，以可行窗牖管窥该类文本的社会介入揭橥。《在流放地》借由残暴政治系统下杀人机器的隐喻与人性异化的拟写，反讽了欧洲现代性文明中法权丧失下社会系统中复生之极端政治异化的历史退步、及其导致人性之局限的动因与必然；基于相似的批判出发点，《檀香刑》则以传统刑罚的变异本性衬托张扬了彼时山东高密人民表现出对荒诞社会系统压迫下的肉体生命感、悲壮感，揭露人性固化、解构与再造的迥异表征路径。现代社会系统中由法权消弭延宕出历史的退步与主体意志的或边缘化或凸显化的塑造；二者以相似逻辑、不同表达的文学执行建立了对时代性与民族性的批驳，以深刻的文学暴力叙事介入社会治理与人性发微的宏旨之中。

Abstract: The penal narrative is deeply involved in the reproduction of the form of social governance and human will in an alineated and disruptive way. Kafka’s In the Penal Colony is a profoundly meaningful narration, a typical portrayal in the writing of violence and punishment, which is analogous to Chinese writer Mo Yan’s Sandalwood Sentence. Via the framework of Habermas’s social theory of modernity, In the Penal Colony expiates on the critique of a resurgence of totalitarian tendencies through the metaphor of a killing machine in the 20^th century, while Sandalwood Death, via the delineation of the corporal mutilation, aims to promote people’s sense of life, solemnness and revolt towards unjust social regime, and depicts the process of fossilization, deconstruction and reconstruction of the public’s identity and subjectivity by the state power and ethics. This paper delves into the similarities and differences between Mo Yan’s and Kafka’s penal novels. It is found that, differently, Kafka’s “punishment” is restored to a homologous reproduction in the spirit from a subtle invisibility in the flesh, while Mo’s work underscores the transformation and regeneration of the humanity and spirit after the corporal mutilation. Both writers contemplate on the grand proposition of the social function of violence and physical punishment through reexamination of the contemporaneity and nationality in literature. Revolved with the elimination of legality in a civilized society, regression of history and the marginalization or centralizatoin of the will of the subject is hereby revealed. A refutation of historical sociality and nationality is delivered by different penal expressions in similar logic.