非裔美國戲劇中黑人勞工形象:《圍籬》(Fences)的個案研究

Abstract

美國黑人在三百多年前被強行運至美國，在南北戰爭後，他們雖然不再是奴隸，但迄今在美國他們仍是被壓迫的少數民族。當代非裔美國作家在他們的作品中都顯露出他們對過去歷史沈痛的關懷。即使被解放至今已逾百餘年，多數黑人的社會地位仍屬普勞階級。在寫實派的非裔美國戲劇中，大多數有工作的男人都是從事低下勞動的工作，而女人則多半是替人幫傭，即使在喜劇中都是如此。而與他們對立的通常是白人上司或老闆。以威爾森的《圍籬》(August Wilson’s Fences, 1985)為例，主人翁楚羅依．梅克森(Troy Maxon)便是個清潔隊員，而他的頂頭上司則是個白人。本文擬從威爾森的《圍籬》為主，藉由解析劇中黑人勞工階級形成原因、黑人勞工和白人上司互動的情結，劇作家對黑勞／白資對立關係的態度來詳細研究黑人勞工階級的意旨作用，及威爾森本人對黑人勞工階級及黑人未來的期許。同時本文將援引以拉克勞與穆芙(Earnesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe)等人的後馬克斯主義(Post-Marxism)理論，來映證威爾森的想法。亦即，他與這些理論家一樣，都認為應該揚棄普勞階級為革命主體的階級化約論(class reductionism)立場，改以強調種族，性別，生態等多元革命主體的重要性。拉克勞與穆芙所提出的激進與多元的民主政治，尤其肯定每一個人或階級與團體的價值。他們認為在平等的基礎上，在同值鎖鏈下，才能建立平等的通識(common sense)，取得平等的權利。這種互相尊重而沒有從屬關係的社會，也正是威爾森在他作品中所勾勒的願景。

ack Africans were taken to America by force almost four centuries ago. Although they were no longer slaves after the Civil War, their descendants are still an oppressed minority in America. Many African American writers have revealed their deep concerns toward their deplorable past. Slavery has been abolished for over a hundred years, but the majority of blacks still occupy the lower social stratum. In realistic Afro-American drama, tragedy and comedy alike, most black males who have jobs are laborers, whereas their female counterparts are maids. Take August Wilson’s Fences as an example. The protagonist, Troy Mason, is a garbage man. By contrast, his boss is white. This paper intends to use Fences as a case study, by analyzing the historical factor of the formation of black labor, the tense interaction between the black laborer and his white boss, the black playwright’s attitude toward the confrontation between black labor and white capitalists, to explicate the signification of the symbol of black people as laborers as well as Wilson’s expectation of black laborers and black Americans.This paper also resorts to theories of Earnesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe to support the philosophy of playwrights such as Wilson. Like the two Post-Marxists, these Afro-American playwrights think one should forsake the position of class reductionism that takes the proletariat as the revolutionary subject. Instead, one should emphasize the importance of multiple revolutionary subjects inclusive of race, gender, ecology, etc. Laclau and Mouffe’s radical and multiple democratic politics affirms the value of each individual, class, and group. They think only on the basis of equality and the chain of equivalence can we establish a society with a common sense of equality and obtain the right to equality. This society of mutual respect without any subordination is the prospect Wilson and other Afro-American playwrights delineate in their plays.