A Postmodern Historical Perspective on the Narratives of ‘Account of The Inhabitants -- Women Marriage and Abortion Customs’ by Georgius Candidius during the Dutch Period of Taiwan: A Critical Discourse Analysis of a Colonial Text

• Main Authors: Jin-Hui Huang, 黃靖慧
• Other Authors: Jens Damm
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/gvfq78

碩士 === 長榮大學 === 台灣研究所 === 101 === This thesis employs the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) methodology proposed by Norman Fairclough to examine the colonial text, ‘Account of the Inhabitants’, written in 1628 by the Dutch missionary, Georgius Candidius (1597-1647), focusing, in particular, on narratives related to women’s marriage and abortions customs. The aim of the research is to identify the problematic usage of language and to trace the development of the written text and the accompanying discourse, showing how this was produced and practiced, as well as how it influenced Formosa’s Aboriginal society. Candidius’ written words influenced the Western world’s perception of Formosa’s Aboriginal people and have generated a series of historical representations since the seventeenth century. In Taiwan itself, after the lifting of martial law in 1987 and the transformation of political power, the so-called “Pingpu Studies” became, for a while, a main strand of academic research: Dutch-Formosan archival material was drawn upon and the phenomenon of textualization and reproduction emerged on the island. CDA is employed as a linguistic and sociological research method for the historical text and for its later usage in the Western and Taiwanese context. Based on the results of this analysis, the author highlights the ideology implicit in the account provided by Candidius, revealing the structures of power relations and the social inequality. Ultimately, the research doubts that the unchallenged legitimacy of Candidius’ text as a first-hand resource in Taiwan historical studies by a perspective of Postmodern.