💕「愛台灣，我的選擇」系列第16發：熱愛台灣詩的美國學者白瑞梅(Amie Parry)
「我在加州內陸地區一個叫做聖伯納迪諾的小城市長大，隨後在聖地牙哥念大學和研究所，並獲得文學博士學位。求學期間我們必須至少選修一門外語，所以我就選了中文。1987年我大學畢業之後，跟朋友來了台灣一趟，在台灣教英文和學中文六個月，接著就自己一個人當起背包客在亞洲四處旅遊。
我本來想要研究中國古典詩詞，後來因為獲得傅爾布萊特獎學金，便又再度回到台灣。當時我在討論詩詞的聚會上認識了幾位現代派詩人，所以我就將研究主題轉而聚焦在台灣60、70和80年代的現代詩。我的博士論文探討的就是，以現代主義來理解現有政治語言中難以理解的現代性。我認為歷史形塑而來的經驗，往往比語言本身還要複雜。
我研究的那些詩作沒有明確的政治性，反而是有很強的實驗性質，並帶著詭譎的神秘感。當時我認識的現代派詩人大多是跟著國民黨飄洋過海來台的外省人，他們經歷過戰爭和顛沛流離，也經歷過劇烈且痛苦的歷史創傷。每個人的經驗都不同，在那個年代，也很難說出口。後來，我寫了一本關於詩的書，並聚焦在一兩位我覺得特別有趣的詩人。我在書中問了一些類似的問題：這些詩作如何幫你思考艱難的議題？
當時的現代詩已經頗有制度，許多詩人都有投稿《現代詩》這份重要的詩刊，有些詩人則是將詩作與戲劇結合。整體而言，台灣的現代詩、表演藝術和文學都發展地如火如荼，也深深吸引了我，但我還未全盤了解。當我完成博士論文時，我便獲得交通大學的教職，讓我對台灣的學術圈感到非常驚艷。而當我出版第一本著作時，我也很訝異能在美國獲獎；我根本不知道自己獲得提名，當時我問授獎單位：「為什麼選擇我的書？」他們表示：「因為書中其中一個章節是以跨國的架構來進行整體論述，妳不是單用西方的理論和東方的詩詞，而是從東西方共同錘煉出嶄新的知識。」
我目前任教於中央大學英美語文學系，除了擔任系主任之外，我也有教授寫作課、文學課和文學文化理論課程。從我1987年第一次來台灣到現在，我覺得台灣人愈來愈能自在地與來自不同地方的人交談，就個人經驗來說，我認為台灣社會愈來愈開放。我第一次來台灣時，經歷了許多台灣社會有趣的發展，也結交了許多朋友，並認識了許多學術圈的同好。我想，這些珍貴的回憶就是呼喚我再度回台的動力；就像是，如果你覺得這個社會充滿生氣和活力，而你也能夠參與其中、做出貢獻，我想這就是像家一樣的感覺吧！」
✨白瑞梅 Amie Parry 現為中央大學英美語文學系 專任教授
💕Why I chose Taiwan #16 – Amie Parry
“I grew up in a small city in inland California called San Bernardino. I went to college and graduate school in San Diego. I got my PhD in literature. We were all expected to learn at least one language, so I did Chinese. I traveled to Taiwan with a friend right after I graduated from college in 1987. We came here to teach English and study Chinese for six months, then I traveled around Asia by myself with a backpack.
I originally wanted to study classical Chinese poetry. I got a Fulbright grant and I came back here. I started going to the poetry nights that were happening at that time. I met some of the modernist poets, and I switched my focus to the modernist poetry of the 60s, 70s, and 80s in Taiwan. I wrote my dissertation on modernism as a way of understanding the parts of modernity that are hard to know in the existing political language that we inherit. I think that experience in historical formation is always more complicated than the language.
These poems are not explicitly political; they're very experimental and strange. At the time, the modernist poets I met were mostly 外省, men who had been drafted and come over with the KMT, so they had experienced war and displacement, and a very intense and traumatic historical moment. People experienced it differently, and at that time, it was a hard thing to talk about. Later, I wrote a book about poetry, but I just focused on one or two poets I find really, really fascinating. And I was asking some of the same kinds of questions: how can these poems help you think about certain topics that are hard to think about?
At that time, Modernist poetry was a kind of an institution already. There was a journal called 現代詩, “Modern Poetry,” a really important journal that most of these poets were published in. Some of them combined poetry and theater. There's just so much going on in Taiwan in terms of poetry and performance and literature. It's just amazing. And I'm very interested in it at all, but I haven't kept up. After I finished my dissertation, I got a job offer at 交大. I thought, wow, there's something really amazing happening intellectually here. When my first book came out, it actually got an award in the U.S., and I was so surprised. I didn't even know it had been nominated. I asked them, ‘Why did you choose my book?’ And they said, because one of the chapters has a transnational of framework for the whole argument, so it wasn't like you used Western theories and Eastern texts, it's like the whole knowledge part is coming out of both places.
I currently teach in the English department at National Central University. I'm the chair and I teach writing classes, literature classes, and literary and cultural theory classes. Since my first visit to Taiwan in 1987, I think people are a little more comfortable talking to people from different places. In my personal interactions, I feel a difference, like a greater openness. Back then, there were so many interesting things happening here, all at one time, and that's the time that I happened to be here. And I made good friends in my personal life and in my intellectual life. And I think those are the things that made me come back: like if you feel that there's something interesting happening and there's some way that you can support it. I guess that's a way of feeling at home.” — Amie Parry
✨Amie Parry is professor of the Department of English at the National Central University
論文章節英文 在 Re: [請益] 請教如何讀英文文獻和英文paper - 看板Master_D 的八卦
※ 引述《ehrd (Long)》之銘言：
: 碩一下了，慢慢的也在看英文的文獻跟paper
: 對我這種平常沒讀英文，大學剛好我們這屆也沒把英文當成必修的科目
: 想請問大家如何讀英文文獻和paper?
: 我的問題現在是，文法忘了很多，會的單字量也不多，等到翻譯完，又覺得翻得怪怪的
: 然後想要做摘要也很難抓到摘要，我們應該怎麼讀會比較容易知道這篇是在說什麼
: 我在想還是要搭配中文的相關文章一起讀？這樣比較容易瞭解？
: 想請問是否有什麼方法可以更容易消化又不浪費時間的？
首先，我是文科，如果你覺得不合用，那就當我寫給別人參考。
讀英文文獻專書很困難，不過有幾個要領：
一、寫概要(outline)
每篇文章，通常都會有標題、前言，章節名稱、結語。讀這些番仔字的第一步驟就是
把這些讀過一次，每個單字都查完。
以我手邊一篇文章為例，概要如下（當然這篇不太算什麼研究）：
How to Read a Paper
1. INTRODUCTION
2. THE THREE-PASS APPROACH
2.1 The first pass
2.2 The second pass
2.3 The third pass
3. DOING A LITERATURE SURVEY
4. EXPERIENCE
5. RELATED WORK
6. A REQUEST
7. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
8. REFERENCES
如此一來，你就會清楚這篇文章大概在說什麼。看了標題，你知道這篇文章想談如
何閱讀論文。看了章節名稱，可以猜得出來作者把閱讀文章分成三個步驟。
你可能會問，接下來幾章是什麼意思？我也不知道。但是讀了就會明白。
二、問自己作者想談什麼問題？
一篇學術研究，作者通常會想處理一個或數個問題。因此一篇好的文章，只要在
前言就看會知道作者想說些什麼。所以閱讀文章以前，必須問自己，這個外國佬
想表達什麼？
同樣以上篇文章為例：
1. INTRODUCTION
Researchers must read papers for several reasons: to re-
view them for a conference or a class, to keep current in
their field, or for a literature survey of a new field. A typi-
cal researcher will likely spend hundreds of hours every year
reading papers.
Learning to efficiently read a paper is a critical but rarely
taught skill. Beginning graduate students, therefore, must
learn on their own using trial and error. Students waste
much effort in the process and are frequently driven to frus-
tration.
For many years I have used a simple approach to efficiently
read papers. This paper describes the `three-pass' approach
and its use in doing a literature survey.
所以你讀了前言，你會知道：哦，原來這篇文章想說怎麼讀論文，然後你可能想，
沒想到外國佬讀英文論文也得學啊？正如作者講的，他們得花很多時間閱讀論文。
所以如何更有效率地讀論文？作者分成三個步驟，並可用來做文獻回顧。
我這裡懶得講了，這篇文章網路上有，自己找來看。
三、看完前言就快點看結論啊！
閱讀論文，尤其是英文論文，切記絕對不要從第一個字讀到最後一個字。理由有二：
1.沒必要，又不是在學英文。
2.可以偷懶，只要先知道結論是什麼就好了，起碼課堂報告時老師不會覺得你沒讀書。
四、偷懶一點，只讀每個段落頭一句
英文，咳！正確來說，好的英文文章，各段落第一句通常是該段主旨。有時最多讀到
第二句就可以了。
所以你已經讀了標題，讀了章節名稱，前言與結論都讀了，其實已經大概可以在課堂
上屁個幾句。如果你再把每段落頭一句都讀一下，包你比起把前面幾頁查個「滿江紅」
，卻連結論都不知道是什麼的同學神氣。
五、其實英文很簡單
難的是單字很多。
英文其實是很簡單的，有興趣可以讀英文聖經，裡頭的句子都非常簡單。麻煩的是，
學術界大概要求英文一定要精簡，所以明明可以用數個單字表示的，偏偏要用一個字
來講，如geopolitical。再不然就是一句英文，附屬子句牽起來跟肉粽串一樣。
The key idea is that you should read the paper in up to
three passes, instead of starting at the beginning and plowing your way
to the end.
英文比較不好的人，遇到上面這句英文就被打敗了，每個單字都懂，偏偏串起來看不懂。
閱讀要領很簡單，把主詞動詞標起來，意思就明白很多。
上面這句話的主詞，就是key idea。動詞呢？當然就是is了。閱讀時在心裡問自己，
主詞在哪，動詞在哪？串起來什麼意思？
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希望有幫助，我想睡了，要補充睡醒再說。
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