艾蜜莉.狄謹森作品中的種族與顏色

Abstract

我的論文嘗試連結艾蜜莉.狄謹森的作品和種族議題。對於這個連結的研究並不多，而且狄謹森在詩學上的創新常被視為和她時代政治上的爭端無關。我發現她在白色這個顏色（以及其相關事物）的使用上頗為符合（至少是她時代的）主流種族論述。她常用白色代表一種想像中的整體性，並將非白人種族比喻成她所選擇的道路上的障礙。藉由給予她所能認同的顏色較高的評價，狄謹森把社會給予她（以及像她的人）的權力地位變成一種理所當然。另一方面，我使用拉崗關於陰性和陽性結構的理論來看狄謹森是不是有除了保守之外的另一面。拉崗的陽性主體比較接近一般的種族主體，但陰性主體卻能在遵從主流秩序的同時從中產生新事物。例如，雖然狄謹森將其所不欲之物投射到非白人種族身上，她也常表明非白人種族是她自己的一部分，而展現了她在種族結構之下的分裂狀態。此外，她詩文的主要風格也可能和她朋友希金生把黑人叛變領袖納特.透納的名字形容成「突然的單音節」有關。對希金生來說，那個名字只能代表可怕的殺戮和仇恨，但狄謹森有時會把「突然的單音節」當作基礎來建構一個具彈性的社群。

My paper tries to relate the works of Emily Dickinson to the issue of race. There hasn’t been much study on that relationship and Dickinson’s poetic renovation is often considered to have nothing to do with her larger political contexts. I find that her use of the color white and its correlates is quite in line with what is aimed at by the dominant racial discourse of (at least) her time. That is, she often makes the color white stand for an imaginary wholeness and puts the non-white in the position of the obstacles she meets on the way she has chosen. In giving a high value to what she can identify herself with, she asserts the privileges given to her (and people like her) by her society. However, using Lacan’s theory of the feminine and masculine structures, I want to see whether there is another Dickinson besides the conservative one I have portrayed. The Lacanian masculine subject is like the usual raced subject while the feminine subject can both obey the dominant order and produce something unexpected in relation to it. For example, though Dickinson projects what she doesn’t want unto the non-white, she also often makes it clear that the non-white is part of herself, thus manifesting her split status under the racial structure. Furthermore, I suggest that she derived her major style from her friend Higginson’s characterization of the first name of the black rebel leader Nat Turner as an “abrupt monosyllable.” That name can only mean terror and murderous retribution to Higginson, but Dickinson sometimes uses an abrupt monosyllable to form the basis of a flexible community.