黑人女性汙名化，父權的壓迫及其生存策略：以童妮․摩里森的《最藍的眼睛》與《蘇拉》和愛麗絲․華克的《紫色姊妹花》及《瑪莉荻安》為例

摘要童妮˙摩里森（Toni Morrison ）與艾麗絲˙渥克（Alice Walker）在她們的小說中明白詮述種族歧視，著重在受種族主義欺壓，被灌輸歐裔美國人較為美麗、高尚、聰明的觀念的非裔美國女性。兩位作者都吸引讀者關注並分析她們的小說，如《最藍的眼睛》（The Bluest Eye）、《蘇拉》（Sula）、《瑪麗迪恩》（Meridian）和《紫色姐妹花》（The Color Purple）中的女性角色。兩位作者透過她們小說中的女性角色與角色的生活經歷捍衛黑人文化認知，強調並強化黑人文化遺產的價值，使她們在美國文學與文化中有不可抹滅的地位。她們的小說呈現獨特的風格，小說目的是替非裔美國女性發聲，嚴厲譴責黑人女性所面臨的暴虐。本文包含針對生態女性主義之批判性調查，調查著重在男性沙文主義與反環保沙文主義對自然環境剝削間之關聯性。生態女性主義人士通常（但並非每次都）使用傳統上偏女性特徵，如照護與養育，來探討上述關聯性。生態女性主義者認為女性與自然同樣受壓抑性、壓迫性、父權、西方和白人為主價值影響，並假設女人與自然間的共通之處。此領域之學者著重在超越與內在、男性與女性、公眾與私人等二元論。上述每項二元論都顯現出對黑人女性的暴虐。摩里森的小說揭露在白人文化中盛行的黑人自卑的迷思。在《最藍的眼睛》中，摩里森透過書中角色佩可拉•布里德洛（Pecola Breedlove）的形容、她的自我形象與她接觸1940年代早期美國社會主流要求像白人洋娃娃般的審美觀，來探討強勢、白人至上審美觀對非裔女青少年自我形象的毀滅性影響。在《蘇拉》中，摩里森捕捉到善與惡的觀念如何與社會定義的女性身分相關聯。《蘇拉》探討女性周邊事物與她們的身分，這本書不只打破過往西方文學對黑人女性的主流觀點或刻板印象，也創造出一名少數刻意選擇成為被排斥者的黑人女主角。渥克在她書中反思性別刻板印象對女性的壓迫。女性被要求要有特定表現，並在重新制定與搬遷她們身分時對抗多面向的期望與壓迫形式。渥克在《紫色姐妹花》與《瑪麗迪恩》中的女性角色與摩里森在《最藍的眼睛》與《蘇拉》中的女性角色類似。渥克同樣用吻合黑人女性社會、智識、情感與心理情境的文字，而這些情境反映黑人女性的痛苦、來自社會的壓迫、強加於她們的限制與她們朝向解放的過程。書中角色在早期無法對抗或克服壓抑她們的環境，但在後期能透過行動探索自己的選項、在社區中發展自我與正向改變自己。這些行動包括發現她們的姊妹情誼。渥克使用她對婦女主義的觀念，強調女性之間獨特與熱情的友誼以及積極的合作能夠賦予女性權力，給予她們能力與意志對抗壓迫，並帶領她們走向自愛與自我實現。渥克在《瑪麗迪恩》中使用書中角色瑪麗迪恩代表黑人婦女有能力擺脫束縛。瑪麗迪恩明白自己的積極身分認同與她身為女性在生活中的角色。她是一名主動而非被動的角色。她周遭的許多婦女接受父權條件下的婚姻與母職，但瑪麗迪恩卻不同，縱使要面對拒絕這些條件與父權社會後所帶來的沉重代價，她仍然拋棄自己的小孩，照顧鎮上的貧困兒童。她的角色是一名堅強美麗的黑人女性，完全發揮自己的潛能，反抗並克服險惡的條件。關鍵字：性別、父權、種族、社會、主觀主義、婦女主義

關鍵字

性別；父權；種族；社會；主觀主義；婦女主義

並列摘要

Abstract Toni Morrison and Alice Walker both shed light on racial discrimination in their novels. They focus on African American women who are victimized by racism and indoctrinated by the idea that Euro-Americans are superior in beauty, morality, and intelligence. Both authors draw readers to pay attention to and analyze several female characters in their novels: The Bluest Eye, Sula, Meridian, and The Color Purple. They have left an enduring mark on American literature and culture, and they uphold black cultural perceptions and highlight and reinforce the values of black cultural legacies. The novels do that through various female characters and their life experiences. These novels also have a distinctive style. The purpose of them is to give a voice to African American women, lodging a stern condemnation of the tyranny that black women face. This dissertation includes notice of the critical inquiry of ecofeminism. The inquiry focuses on the relationship between male chauvinism and the exploitation of the natural environment because of anti-environmental and chauvinist principles and actions. Ecofeminists discuss this relationship (sometimes and not invariably so) by examining conventionally “feminine” characteristics such as caring and nurturing. Ecofeminists also theorize what women and nature share because of repressive and oppressive, patriarchal, Western, and white-dominated values. This group of scholars also engage in that work by focusing on such dualisms as transcendence/immanence, female/male, public/private. Each of these manifests a tyranny against black women. Toni Morrison’s novels reveal the matter of the myth of black inferiority that prevails in a largely white culture. One of those novels, The Bluest Eye, investigates the devastating effects of dominant, white supremacist, beauty standards on the self-images of African female adolescents. It does that through the character of Pecola Breedlove, descriptions of this character, and Pecola’s self-image as well as through the exposure of the dominant white “Barbie doll” beauty standards that prevailed in American society in the early 1940s. In the novel Sula, Morrison effectively captures the way concepts of good and evil are related to societal definitions of womanhood. Sula also is concerned with the affairs of women and the roles that they assume. The novel not only destroys popular perceptions or stereotypes of black women in Western literature; it also creates one of the few black women heroines who deliberately embraces the role of the pariah. Alice Walker reflects in her novels on the suppression of women because of gender stereotypes. Women are expected to act in certain ways and so struggle to reformulate and relocate their identities against that multi-faceted expectation and form of oppression. Similar to Toni Morrison’s representations of female characters in The Bluest Eye and Sula, Walker’s depiction of female characters in The Color Purple and Meridian is in a language befitting the social, intellectual, emotional, and psychological circumstances of black women. Those circumstance reflect their suffering, the social subduing of them, and the limits placed on them as well as their evolution towards emancipation. While these characters are first portrayed as being unable to combat or defeat their oppressive circumstances, they later are shown to have agencies that allow them to explore their options, to grow as individuals in their communities, and to change in positive ways. Those agencies include the discovery of their sisterhood. Walker’s concept, womanism, is applied here. Walker uses it to emphasize the distinct and passionate friendships of women and their active cooperation. These empower women and result in their ability and resolve to resist oppression and their path towards self-love and self-realization. In Meridian, Walker represents the ability of black women to free themselves from captivity in the figure of Meridian. She has a clear vision of her positive identity and her role in life as a woman. Meridian is not a passive character; rather she is an active one. She differs from many women around her, who accept the conditions imposed upon them of marriage and motherhood under patriarchal terms. Rejecting those conditions and that patriarchal society despite the heavy cost of that rejection, Meridian abandons her child and takes care of the poor children of her town. Her character is that of a strong and beautiful black woman who brings to fruit her potential to defy and rise above atrocious conditions. Key words: gender, patriarchy, race, society, subjectivism, womanism

並列關鍵字

gender ； patriarchy ； race ； society ； subjectivism ； womanism

參考文獻

Works Cited

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