自傳書╱畫－－《越南美國》中的圖像記憶場域

Autobio/Graphic Writing-The Construction of the Site of Memory in Vietnamerica

越裔美國作家陳家寶（G. B. Tran）的圖像小說《越南美國：一個家族的旅程》（Vietnamerica: A Family’s Journey）以新創的字彙標示自己越南裔美國人的身份，也烘托出副標題「一個家族的旅程」所要表達的集體性。《越南美國》不僅記錄了陳家寶對於越南美國身份的認同之旅，呈現了陳氏家族從越南到美國的遷移過程，他們的旅程更象徵性地代表了越南美國社群形成的過程。陳家寶選擇以圖像書寫的藝術拼湊出家族歷史，企圖為流離失所的家人以及越南美國族群建構出藝術性的記憶場域。本文主要分析《越南美國》如何以圖像藝術回憶家族／國族歷史，介入生命書寫傳統。論文第一部分簡單介紹漫畫（comics）與圖像小說的傳統，藉之建構出《越南美國》的藝文傳承；第二部分則以這本圖像小說中的幾個重要場景以及敘事策略為例，探索陳家寶如何結合繪畫與文字藝術建構記憶場域，建構出集體性的文化屬性認同。

In his 2010 graphic novel, Vietnamerica: A Family’s Journey, G. B. Tran creates a new and hybrid vocabulary, Vietnamerica, to define his identity and to underscore the collectivity as implied in its subtitle. Vietnamerica not only records Tran’s personal search for identity but also presents the migratory route of the Tran family from Vietnam to the United States, which in turn symbolically represents the formative process leading to the emergence of the Vietnamese American community. In an attempt to construct an artistic lieux de mémoire, or site of memory, for his displaced families as well as for the Vietnamese American community, G. B. Tran chooses to employ graphic narrative as the medium through which he pieces together his family story. This paper aims to analyze the ways in which Vietnamerica artistically recollects familial/national histories and intervenes in the tradition of life writing. The first part briefly introduces the traditions of comics and graphic narratives to explicate the artistic heritage of Vietnamerica; the second part focuses on several key scenes and the various narrative strategies of the novel as examples to explore how G. B. Tran combines graphic art and literary text to construct his own site of memory and collective cultural identity.