本論文將藉由細讀韓波、卡夫卡及波赫士的作品，來探討文學中憂鬱的不同氣質。這些作品寄望藉由使用語言來成就詩歌、抵達某種目的地，或者尋得意義，卻每每無法達到。而憂鬱便來自於作品中所傳達的沉思，以及其所帶來的挫折。第一章探討的是韓波 (Arthur Rimbaud) 的《醉舟》(_Le bateau ivre_)。韓波的這首詩，充份體現他曾宣示的詩學，亦即詩人應該要經歷一切、化作一切。然而在此同時，該詩也預視了此份企圖的註定失敗，亦即班雅明 (Walter Benjamin) 所稱的「靈光消逝」 (the fading of aura; _der Verfall der Aura_)，以及波特萊爾 (Charles Baudelaire) 所稱「感應」(_correspondances_) 的消失。第二章關注的是卡夫卡的短篇故事《無限長的旅行》(_Der Aufbruch_)。韓波寄望能抵達某種新生，然而卡夫卡的故事卻對此寄望存疑。除此之外，該文也相當程度地翻轉了海德格 (Martin Heidegger) 所謂「語言之聲」(the call of language; _der Ruf der Sprache_) 的想法。海德格認為「語言之聲」是詩歌創造力的源頭，但那並不總和我們同在，因此我們必得時時「走向語言之途」。卡夫卡的故事卻說，追尋不斷、不停地離開，而沒有任何抵達的可能。第三章則將前述的諸多論點，帶進波赫士 (Jorge Luis Borges) 的《巴別圖書館》(_La biblioteca de Babel_)。故事的敘事者，為我們述說了人在面對一座無邊無際的圖書館時，所感到的挫折，而這種挫折是韓波和卡夫卡都體認到的。這座「圖書館」為我們帶來各種的不可能，而班雅明認為這種種不可能，恰是卡夫卡寫作中的重要主題。另一方面，波赫士的敘事者提出了不同的想法，認為他的寫作，終有一天會與人再度相遇，讓他的寫作得到意義。這種想法為即將來到旅程盡頭、深思而受憂鬱所苦的旅者/作者，帶來了令人存疑的希望。 This thesis is based on close readings with the goal of defining the different qualities of literary melancholy in Rimbaud, Kafka, and Borges: the pensive reflections and the frustrations in the face of the impossibility of writing poetry, reaching a goal, or finding a meaning by the use of language. Chapter One sets up the discussion by showing that Arthur Rimbaud's "The Drunken Boat" (_Le bateau ivre_) manifests his own poetic program that one ought to experience all and become everything. The poem, however, is also a premonition of the failure of such ambition, what Walter Benjamin designates as the fading of the "aura" and of the Baudelairean _correspondances_ (poetic echoes). Chapter Two focuses on "The Departure" (_Der Aufbruch_), a short story by Franz Kafka. Not only does this story pose doubts on Rimbaud's hope of reaching somewhere new, it is also a twist on Heidegger's view that the "call" of language -- the source of poetic creativity -- is apart from us and therefore one must set on a journey to seek it. "The Departure" undermines such view by suggesting that only seeking persists and there is perhaps no such thing as a reaching. Chapter Three brings these views together into Jorge Luis Borges's "The Library of Babel" (_La biblioteca de Babel_). The narrator of the story relates to the frustrations one experiences in a limitless Library, which are shared by Rimbaud and Kafka. In particular, the Library presents us with various kinds of impossibilities that Benjamin finds a major subject in Kafka's writing. Nevertheless, Borges's narrator proposes a different view that his writing may one day be "re-encountered" by someone, thus justifying his act of writing. This gives questionable hope to a pensive, melancholic traveler-writer near the end of his journey.
