A Study of Toni Morrison's Effort to Deconstruct the Sociological Concepts of Ethnocentrism and the Assimilation Model in Her "The Bluest Eye" (1970)

湯尼莫里森如何用她的小說《最藍的眼睛》去解構族群的自我中心論與社會學中的同化模型

魯子青(Lewis T. C. Lu)

《高應科大人文社會科學學報》 6卷2期 (2009/12) Pp. 231-257

https://doi.org/10.29888/KUASJHSS.200912.0004

摘要

傳統社會學一致認定，每個族群都有一種以自我為中心的心態，進而排斥其他的族群。黑人在美國是少數族裔，長期受到白人的統治與歧視，為了生存或自保理應發展出比白人更堅強的民族凝聚力。然而諾貝爾文學獎得主莫里森女士卻在她的第一本小說中暗示，大多數美國黑人都欣然接受被同化的命運，而爭相模仿白人的生活模式與文化價值，並無時不以自己族群的膚色為恥辱。莫氏在七十年代黑人國家主義與分離主義甚囂塵上的年代發表這樣的作品，無異於在自己同胞的自尊心上重擊了一棒，完全擊潰了黑人美學運動中所提倡「黑就是美」的自欺口號。可是族群自我中心論（ethnocentrism）的瓦解難道就代表黑人們即將同化進主流的白人社會裡了嗎？但文化的同化（acculturation）絕不是最終的同化指標，只有社經地位得到提昇，才能使少數族裔與主流白人達到實質的平等。可是放棄自我族群的文化傳承為何反使黑人們的社經地位在眾移民人口中敬陪末座？莫氏的結論認為美國社會學的同化模型出現了根本的錯誤，而美國黑人盲目追求同化的結果只會導致族群意識的流失，而使他們淪為沒有根、沒有靈魂的社會邊緣人。莫氏的作品當然反諷用意極強，且不斷對同化社會社會學一廂情願的單向思考提出無情的批判，也解構了同化典範中的初步概念：民族自我中心理論。總之，莫氏的多元文化觀為後現代的文學社會學注入了新的活力與生命。

關鍵字

湯尼莫里森 ； 族群自我中心論 ； 同化 ； 大眾文化 ； 群體認同

並列摘要

Ethnocentrism is a very important sociological concept that is formulated as a universal characteristic of autonomous societies or ethnic groups. According to this concept, in-group members always regard their values, goals, and interests as the center of everything, and the out-group members are rated and scaled with reference to them. As a result, in-group members are eager to look for grounds for the negative evaluation of the out-group. However, Toni Morrison, a female African-American writer who won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature, reveals in her first novel ”The Bluest Eyes” (1970) that large numbers of black characters seem to feel ashamed of their skin color and constantly experience a denial of their racial identity and themes of blackness in the emulation of white standards in the larger society. Their readiness to acculturate, however, fails to facilitate their socio-economic assimilation; instead, it puts them on an increasingly unequal and servile footing with the majority whites. Morrison is also critical of the assimilation model in American sociology, dismissing its assumption as so unrealistic as to ignore the constant reinvention of ethnicity and its seething resistance to what Milton Gordon (1961) called ”Anglo-conformity.” Obviously, Morrison's purpose is to tantalize the structuralist notion underlying the dual or binary oppositions between black and white, bad and good, the marginalized and the ”mainstream,” sordid reality and fairy tale of the white myth, as well as inferiority and superiority. However, in doing so she unwittingly ”deconstructs” the root notions of ethnocentrism and the assimilation model that has been widely favored by sociologists since Robert Park.

並列關鍵字

Toni Morrison ； ethnocentrism ； assimilation ； mass culture ； group identity