碩士 / 國立交通大學 / 客家文化學院客家社會與文化學程 / 104 / This these discusses Gan Yaoming’s Ghost Slayer with the focus on the writer’s frequent uses of Taiwanese Aboriginal myths. I argue that this particular literary strategy of Gan’s is derived from two facts: (1) the writer’s homeland is in Miaoli where there has been a long history of the interaction between the Aboriginals and the Hans; (2) there is a literary genealogy in Miaoli describing stories of anti-Japanese colonialism. The long novel features a Taiwanese aboriginal teenager Pa (short form for Pa-pak-Wa-qa) to represent Taiwanese during and after the Japanese colonial time (1895-1947). Unlike most historical novels of this period, Ghost Slayer tells Pa’s story in the style of magic realism rather than socialist realism, and thus making the story more approachable to contemporary young readers.
Although Pa has blended many cultural heritages, Gan Yaoming has only emphasized three of his identities: young Japanese national in Taiwan（しょうこくみん）, Giant Halus, and the hunter. Each of the identities has numerous allusions to myths, especially those related to Taiwanese aboriginals. My job in the thesis is mainly to interpret Japanese colonial education and the allusions to aboriginal myths. It is hoped that this effort will contribute to a deeper appreciation of the novel as aboriginal myths in Taiwan have not been introduced enough. This lack of aboriginal knowledge has often led to a superficial support of Taiwanese autonomy from the immigrants’ idiosyncratic understanding of Taiwan history.
My other argument is on Gan’s writing style, often described as magic realism. I argue that his strategy has achieved a different interpretation of the historical meaning of Japanese colonization. Instead of pathos, Gan’s novel is full of teenager energy, leading us to the wonder of primitive worldviews and expectations of Taiwanese aboriginals.
The limit of this thesis is my interpretation, which has to rely on the writer’s perspective, which “purges” the aboriginal myths. In other words, Gan did not target aboriginals to be his readers when he wrote this historical novel.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TW/104NCTU5774003 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Huang,Mei-Hui, 黃美惠 |
| Contributors | Jiang,Shu-zhen, 蔣淑貞 |
| Source Sets | National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations in Taiwan |
| Language | zh-TW |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | 學位論文 ; thesis |
| Format | 99 |
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