原住民、文學與跨界研究---以北美為場域-北美原住民跨國敘事(II-I)

Abstract

北美原住民文學向以返家為其主宗，自一九六零年代原住民文學復興，四十年來， 返鄉向為主調，證諸莫馬戴、威爾區、席爾珂與維茲諾，四大家皆以返鄉為其情節重 點與創作重心。晚近論者指出北美原住民文學的新方向為跨國敘事，以一九九年席爾 珂的《沙丘花園》與二零零零年威爾區的《奔鹿的心歌》為其代表。 北美原住民文學的跨國轉向非始於今日，從地理大發現的角度來看，歐洲人跨越大 西洋來到北美洲，應為近代以來最大的跨國/跨洲遷移，其後非洲奴隸、歐洲移民、墨 美偷渡客、亞洲勞工陸續往返北美洲，形成近代以來綢密又頻繁的跨國/跨洲人口遷移 場域，有趣的是，其中似乎少有北美原住民離鄉背景遠走他方。 席爾珂與威爾區想像北美原住民啟程赴歐，一方面偏離原住民文學的返鄉主調，另 一方面翻轉歐洲地理大發現的路徑，當北美原住民來到歐洲，發生什麼事？北美原住 民為什麼要來歐洲？除了歐洲，原住民還去其它地方嗎？ 本計劃擬以兩年時間研讀當代北美原住民跨國敘事，第一年以席爾珂與威爾區為 主，比較《沙丘花園》與《奔鹿的心歌》；第二年以維茲諾為主，探討維氏的跨國想像， 包括場景設在中國的《自由搗蛋鬼》(1988)、在英國的《哥倫布傳人》(1999)與在日本 的《廣島舞妓》(2003) 。

That the concept of “homing in” is the most predominant thematic of Native American narratives (NAN) has been widely established. Since the era of the Native American Renaissance, “homing in” has been the most persistent concern and master plot among Native American masters, such as N. Scott Momaday, James Welch, Leslie M. Silko and Gerald Vizenor. Lately critics have paid attention to a “transnational” turn in Native American narratives, making references to especially Silko’s Gardens in the Dunes (1999) and Welch’s The Heartsong of the Charging Elk (2000). I argue however that the transnational turn in NAN should be examined in a larger historical context. In the days of the Geographical Discovery, Europeans had crossed the Atlantic to arrive in North America, thus trekking and marking the largest transcontinental and transnational migration trajectories in modern times. European immigrants, African slaves, Mexican wetbacks, and Asian laborers have come back and forth to make North America one of the largest and most congested migration territories of today’s world. It’s however interesting to observe if Native Americans are transnational migrants. Both Silko and Welch imagine Native Americans going to Europe in their novels. On the one hand, their transnational protagonists make a departure from the traditional thematic of “homing in”; on the other, they reverse the European trajectories by going to Europe. When Native Americans go to Europe, what happens? Why do they go? Do they go anywhere else? This two-year project aims to study contemporary transnational Native American narratives. The first year focuses on Silko and Welch, making a comparison between Gardens in the Dunes and The Heartsong of the Charging Elk. The second turns to Vizenor by exploring his transnational trickster imagination in The Trickster of Liberty (1988), The Heirs of Columbus (1999), and Hiroshima Bugi (2003).