- 學位論文
憶大西洋幽靈 : 閱讀勞倫斯．希爾的《黑奴之書》
Specters of the Atlantic: Reading Lawrence Hill's_The Book of Negroes_
摘要
本論文以學者伊恩．勃肯(Ian Baucom)所提出關於現今是否願意接受過去的問題點來切入探討勞倫斯．希爾(Lawrence Hill)的小說《黑奴之書》(The Book of Negroes)。旨在研究這部小說是如何重新思索黑人歷史與解讀歷史上所形塑的黑人形象，進而使得人們喚起那揮之不去大西洋幽靈的歷史記憶。本論文試圖分析零碎片段般的底層人民歷史是如何來挑戰白人歷史的權威性，以及讀者又是如何能從《黑奴之書》中所再現的一些特殊歷史時刻，來讀得底層人民在歷史上各種形式的「能動性」(agency)。藉由呈現女主人翁阿蜜娜妲．狄雅柔(Aminata Diallo) 所經歷的一連串歷史事件，筆者認為這部小說企圖將一些我們未盡的歷史責任與義務加諸於讀者身上，而且強調透過閱讀的行為，阿蜜娜妲的故事將會不斷地被喚起、重寫、流傳下去。 論文第一章首先回顧英國政府在2007年所舉行的廢除大西洋奴隸貿易的二百週年紀念會，指出官方再現此段歷史的不足處。筆者希望藉由這個回顧來印證勃肯所提出的問題點，點出問題不是在於「過去是否存在於今日」，而是「現今是否願意接受過去的存在」。緊密扣連著這個論點，本章闡述勃肯「漫長的二十世紀」的歷史概念 ; 此歷史觀是如何讓我們體悟到個人自出生以來就必須承擔的歷史責任? 而現今我們還可以以哪些不同於以往且具有批判性思維的視角來閱讀黑人歷史? 第二章接著探討勞倫斯．希爾的小說《黑奴之書》，試圖分析這部小說是如何在現有的白人歷史的論述下，質疑白人歷史中所再現的歷史事件與所刻劃出的黑人角色，重思黑人歷史並提供另一解讀的可能性和閱讀方式。透過微觀女主人翁阿蜜娜妲的故事，本章希望用巨觀的視角來看其經驗背後所隱含的代表性意義。第三章總結此論文，並以學者里納多．沃克特 (Rinaldo Walcott) 對於今日尚存奴隸制陰影下所帶來的心理創傷因而提出的「混雜化教學法」(creolized pedagogy)，來重思「混雜化」(creolization) 這項議題，同時也試圖要問 : 現今閱讀《黑奴之書》的適當方式為何? 本論文希望透過這個問題，引發對於「過去意義」這個主題更進一步的探討，進而開啟更多樣性的思考角度於參與一個拒絕被和解的黑人歷史的學習課題上。
並列摘要
This thesis explores the question Ian Baucom poses—“whether the now will or will not accept the property it has inherited in its what-has-beens” (Specters 330)—as a way to read Lawrence Hill’s novel The Book of Negroes (2007) now. It seeks to investigate how Hill’s novel reconfigures a black history and recalibrates history’s conception of black people to enable us to remember specters of the Atlantic. It attempts to examine how fragments of subaltern histories may challenge the authority of a white history and how we may read forms of subaltern historical agency in each of the specific historical moments represented in Hill’s novel. By representing the protagonist Aminata Diallo involvement in a series of historic events—including but not limited to the Atlantic slave trade, the American Revolutionary War, black Loyalist history, and the British abolition of the slave trade—Hill’s novel places specific demands on its readers. In addressing this topic, this thesis project consequently argues that Aminata’s story would, through the act of reading, continually be evoked and renewed beyond her moment of enunciation. There are three chapters in this thesis. Chapter One underlines the inadequacy of official representations of the British bicentenary commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade held in 2007. It accentuates Ian Baucom’s contention that “[t]he question . . . is not whether the present is or is not host to its various ‘pasts,’ but whether the now will or will not accept the property it has inherited in its what-has-beens” (Specters 330) as the problematic and the task of this thesis project as a whole. This chapter accordingly asks: how could Baucom’s concept of “the long twentieth century” enable us to recognize our inherited historical responsibility? And in what ways could we read a black history with a renewed sense of scrutiny? Chapter Two turns to Hill’s novel The Book of Negroes to investigate its reformulation of a black history as a way of remembering the specters of the Atlantic. It explores how Hill’s novel continues in various ways to problematize forms of power enacted in an authorized history and how a black history may nevertheless be read otherwise. This chapter contends that the novel’s representation of Aminata Diallo’s particularity does not simply testify against the violence wrought by the British in black Loyalist history, but, through her experience, brings into question her story at large. Chapter Three concludes this thesis by underlining its central concern with a critical project of remembering. It seeks to rethink the issue of creolization as viewed through Rinaldo Walcott’s creolized pedagogy engaged with the lived trauma of slavery and, consequently, attempts to answer the question: what would constitute an adequate way to read Hill’s novel in the present? In doing so, this thesis hopes to generate further questions about the meanings of the past, opening up new avenues to learn to engage with a past that refuses to be settled.