恐懼生態學與黑色洛杉磯

Ecology of Fear and Black Los Angeles

李有成(Yu-Cheng Lee)

《人文社會電子學報》 2卷1期 (2006/06) Pp. 5-10

https://doi.org/10.30134/STOSHSS.200606.0002

摘要

一九九二年洛杉磯中南區暴動前後，有兩部所謂美國黑人新寫實主義電影，分別對黑色洛杉磯的都會空間層系與人群生態提出相當深刻的批判。這兩部電影是《鄰家少年殺人事件》(Boyz N the Hood) 和《社會威脅》(Menace II Society)，影片所繪製的反烏托邦市景頗能反映洛杉磯中南區乃至於美國若干非裔美國人聚居的城市內部的現狀。本文的目的在檢視這兩部電影所部署的空間分配，探討好萊塢文化工業如何藉排除政治(politics of exclusion) 把空間與都會符號視為區隔的類別，以決定在再現的過程中，何者可以凸顯，何者又必須壓制。本文同時指出，這兩部影片中的黑色洛杉磯是個全然被圍堵的空間，不僅影片中的角色幾乎不曾離開他們活動的生活空間，一不小心離開了即招來危險，空間因此成為社會控制的區域，並淪為軍事化的地景。

關鍵字

恐懼生態學 ； 黑人街坊電影 ； 黑人新寫實主義 ； 剝削黑人的電影 ； 貧民窟中心論 ； 排除政治 ； 圓形監獄

並列摘要

Two black films, Boyz N the Hood and Menace II Society, were produced before and after the 1992 riots in South-Central Los Angeles, and both offer profound critiques on the spatial hierarchy and human ecology of black Los Angeles. The dystopian cityscape mapped out by these so-called new black realist films epitomizes the reality of South-Central Los Angeles and American inner cities populated by African Americans. This paper seeks to investigate the spatial arrangements represented in these films and to see how the politics of exclusion is deployed by the culture industry of Hollywood to decide what should be foregrounded and what should not in the process of representation. This paper also contends that Los Angeles as seen in these films is a contained space. Most of the characters hardly leave the world in which they live, and when they do inadvertently and temporarily, they usually fall prey to racial attacks. In these films, space turns out to be a mechanism of social control, a militarized zone, so to speak.

並列關鍵字

ecology of fear ； hood film ； new black realism ； Blaxploitation ； ghettocentricity ； politics of exclusion ； panopticon