縱觀當代後殖民文學的系譜流變，不難注意到早期作家致力於探索去（反）殖民論述或是「交混」的意義；然至近期，新一代後殖民作家在書寫中開始面對與處理後殖民邁向全球化進程中的多元轉化。事實上，後殖民的困境在二十一世紀並未終結。相反地，生存的意義，在晚期後殖民情境中，被拋入更細微的跨界流動，而重新被問題化。印度裔英語作家姬蘭‧德賽（Kiran Desai）的《繼承失落》（The Inheritance of Loss）成功地彰顯了協商此種全新困境的必要性與困難性，因此獲得布克獎桂冠的肯定。身為印度獨立後的第二代作家，除了承繼第一代作家的政治關懷，德賽更敏銳地書寫出大環境劇烈變遷下演化出的繼承困境（諸如境內分離運動和全球化）。在該書中，她細膩地描繪出當生命的對話在縱橫交錯的時間（過去、現在與未來）與空間（印度、英、美三地）的經緯線下交會，人們內心對正義、律法與情感等的渴望便陷入了難以協商的囹圄。協商不再是絕對的非此即彼之選擇，而是生命於意義迷宮的無助、焦慮與回應。究極而言，我們可以說生命意義的難題乃在於協商總是一種困境下無可選擇的責任繼承。德希達（Jacques Derrida）的解構式協商恰如其分地揭示了這般困境的深層面向。德希達定義真正的困境（aporia）乃是一種主體面對正義未被彰顯的幽靈纏繞時，回應的不可能性（the impossible）。意即，當我們面對兩相衝突、又無法自存的應承之責時，協商即陷入困頓：我們無法在不違背一方的情況下履行另一方。據此，本論文之宗旨乃試圖以德希達的「解構協商」開展《繼承失落》小說中嶄新的詮釋風貌；援引德希達的困境協商，從暴力、冷漠，以及愛三個漸進的解構視角析論德賽後殖民-全球化小說《繼承失落》中生存意義的困境。

This thesis aims to use a Derridean perspective to explore new postcolonial negotiations with respect to life aporias in Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss. Examining the genealogy of postcolonial literature, one can find that earlier postcolonial works were mainly focused on issues of anti-colonialism or colonizer-colonized hybridity. However, the new generation of postcolonial writers has veered to emerging problems of multi-transitional postcolonialism in the context of globalization. The postcolonial subjects in the late postcolonial age are thrown into more complicated and subtle cross-border flows—laden with the unresolved past and the unknown future. Life becomes aporetic. In The Inheritance of Loss, Desai successfully brings to view the necessities and difficulties of negotiating these new postcolonial life aporias. Therefore, this novel won her the laurel of the Man Booker Prize in 2006. Under an existent condition as what she depicts, negotiating the non-negotiable for all characters in the story becomes not just an impasse of meaning but also an unbearable duty of life. Derrida’s philosophy of negotiation addresses the idea of aporia, which I believe can help shed a new light on this postcolonial novel. According to Derrida, true aporia, by definition, signifies the impossible of responsibility, as the subject is haunted by the specters of infinite justice for which one cannot be assuaged without the expense of other others’ justice first. Negotiation per se is always enmeshed in aporia. One neither has the option to refuse negotiation nor complies with a social commandment without disrespecting or violating other ethics. Based on this non-negotiable duty, this thesis links the theme of inheritance in Desai’s novel with Derrida’s deconstructive negotiation in terms of violence, indifference and love. That is, how violence is used to against violence, how indifference is concomitant with a fundamental non-indifference, and finally how love is practiced in (and transgresses) the economy of love in Desai’s novel.

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