懷俄明與懷惡名論《斷背山》文字與電影中的恐同犯罪及美國歷史暴力

Two Wyomings Homophobic Crimes and American Historical Violence in Literary/Visual Brokeback Mountain

郭強生(John Sheng Kuo)

《英美文學評論》 14期 (2009/06) Pp. 37-60

https://doi.org/10.6711/REAL.200906_(14).0002

摘要

在政治哲學領域，近年來對暴力與種族屠殺議題已多有討論，但對恐同暴力的深入理解與如何扼止與防範此類暴力的猖獗，顯然缺乏更廣泛的關注。在真實生活中懷俄明州拉瑞米鎮(Laramie, Wyoming)的馬修•謝柏(Matthew Shepard)謀殺案，與小說與電影《斷背山》(Brokeback Mountain)，都被視爲近期同志論述中的重要事件。本論文企圖打破一般論者對於文字與影像的《斷背山》過於簡化的「牛仔同志愛情故事」認知，強調這同時亦是一個傳統的西部／國家敘述，並藉拉瑞米鎮的謝柏謀殺案，揭露西部暴力的迷思同時滲透真實與想像；另一方面也提醒西部敘事與西部類型電影具有合理化恐同暴力的可能性。當真實世界中的恐同暴力與文學影像虛構的同志困境都在「西部」這個充滿迷思的空間中相遇，牛仔、邊城、野地成爲新世紀最爲人熟悉的同志場景，它們究竟直指了暴力就是美國歷史的核心？還是反讓恐同暴力真實的破壞性又再度藉「歷史化」而成爲另一種迷思？

關鍵字

恐同暴力 ； 安妮普露 ； 馬修•謝柏 ； 賽菊寇 ； 拉瑞米 ； 西部神話 ； 同志櫥櫃

並列摘要

Even though there is increasing attention paid to violence and genocide in the field of political philosophy, homophobic crimes still remain a less explored subject as to how they can be better understood and prevented. Two important events that are related to the subject require our close examinations: one is the murder of the gay university student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming; the other, the artistically and commercially acclaimed film Brokeback Mountain, based on Annie Proulx's short fiction of two gay men's thwarted love in Wyoming, which, according to Proulx, is a look at rural homophobia. In this paper, the researcher attempts to argue that to regard the literary and/or cinematic versions of Brokeback Mountain as a ”gay cowboy love story” is to minimize the impacts and mislead the perceptions of homophobic violence in today's world. On the one hand, this paper aims to demonstrate that Proulx's story is in fact an example of American western/national narrative; on the other hand, it points out how the western myth of violence exists in both reality and fictional imagination by juxtaposing Brokeback Mountain and the murder case of Matthew Shepard. Western movies and fictions, as the paper continues to emphasize, tend to legitimize such violence. When ”the Western” becomes the new gay landscape where the real crime and the fictional gay predicament collide, it is crucial to ask whether the new mixed genre of ”gay western” helps shed light on the violence in American history. Or rather, is homophobic violence thus historicized and its destructive force mythicized?

並列關鍵字

homophobic violence ； Annie Proulx ； Matthew Shepard ； Eve Sedgwick ； Laramie ； Western myth ； the closet

參考文獻

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