本文提出一個我稱之為「關係的比較」的新比較理論芻議，主張從事關係 的比較學，或視比較文學為關係研究。為了建立關係比較學的理論框架，我將 先探討珍納．阿布－勒赫(Janet L. Abu-Lughod)、約翰．霍布森(John M. Hobson) 和安德烈．岡德．弗蘭克(André Gunder Frank)等學者所闡述的一體化世界史理 論，再結合馬提尼克思想家愛德瓦．葛里桑(Édouard Glissant)所提出的關係理論 (theory of Relation)，連結地理文化史、社會經濟史、文學與詩學。論文以「墾 殖園弧線」為聚焦點，沿著加勒比海地區延伸至美國南部以及東南亞，再折返 加勒比海，分別分析福克納的南方小說、張貴興《猴杯》的婆羅洲熱帶雨林故 事、及翠西亞．鮑威爾(Patricia Powell) 筆下黑人，進口苦力的白種商人、華人 苦力與小店主聚居的牙買加。本文要旨有二：首先，我要說明以敏銳的世界史 觀進行關係研究，如何要求世界文學需盡可能更嚴肅看待其「在世性」；其次， 我要證明關係的比較學如何為比較文學打造新舞臺，甚至開啟新的生命。

This essay is a modest proposal for relational comparison. It argues for comparison as relation, or doing comparative literature as relational studies. To set up the relational framework, I first draw insights from the integrative world history detailed by such scholars as Janet L. Abu-Lughod, John M. Hobson, and André Gunder Frank. I synthesize these findings with the theory of Relation developed by Édouard Glissant as a way to link geocultural and socioeconomic history not only to literature but also to poetics. The specific pivot traces what I call the “plantation arc,” stretching from the Caribbean to the American South and to Southeast Asia. I examine the interconnectedness of the literary works along the post-slavery plantation arc such as the plantation novels of William Faulkner set in the American South, Chang Kuei-hsing’s Monkey Cup set in the Borneo rainforest and the Caribbean of Patricia Powell, the Jamaica of post-abolition blacks, white coolie traders, Chinese coolies, and shopkeepers. The purpose here is two fold: first, to illustrate how doing relational studies with a keen world historical sense demands that world literature take its worldliness more seriously than thought possible; and second, to show how relational comparison opens up a new arena, perhaps even a new life, for comparative literature.