名字裏的陌生人：拉希莉《同名》中的亞美他者

Strangers within the Name: The Asian American Other in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake

本文析論他者之異域性賦予亞美文學的流動性和動能，以《同名》說明亞美之為他者的形成是變異流動的過程。以克莉絲蒂娃「外邦人」概念探討：1. 名字的異域性內蘊並揭露族裔移民之為他者；2. 死亡和出生是標界族裔移民之為他者的「通過儀式」：透過出生的命名和死亡等儀式，移民社群體認其世代的延續性和斷裂性，產生他者的自覺。《同名》的命名議題揭示了上述的異域性和動能。名字的詭誕性不但突顯了移民的邊緣身份，更強化移民的他者自覺。《同名》的個案顯示名字的異域性正是移民介入、跨越不同文化的具體表徵，更彰顯移民的動能，在命名中使新興文學傳統與主流文學傳統相互詰抗嫁接，新意由是而生。

This article argues that the making of Asian America as the Other is itself a continual state of transformation. Employing The Namesake as a case in point, the essay illustrates how the concept of foreignness renders fluidity and agency to Asian American literature. Using Julia Kristeva’s idea of 'the stranger' as a point of departure, this essay centers on: 1) how the foreignness of name implies and unravels ethnic immigrants’ otherness; 2) funerals and the naming of newborn babies mark out themselves as 'the rites of passage,' reminding the immigrants of their otherized position. The recurrent motif of naming in The Namesake demonstrates such foreignness and agency. The grotesqueness of the immigrants’ names highlights their marginality and in turn reinforces their consciousness of being the Other. The analysis of naming in The Namesake thus evinces that the foreignness carried in names embodies the immigrant’s agency of engaging in different cultures and transcending their boundaries. It is such agency that makes possible the confrontation and transplantation of emergent and dominant literary traditions, whence newness begins to happen.