歷史記憶與創傷時間：敘述日裔美國遷徙營

Historical Memory and Traumatic Time: Narrating Japanese American Relocation Camps

這一篇論文爬梳日裔美國遷徙營（relocation camp）敘述的歷史，討論既存的遷徙營敘述，也試圖建立一個以創傷理論為核心的遷徙營敘述模式。論文主張不只將日美遷徙營視為一樁發生在過去的歷史事件，並將其視為一個歷史創傷：作為歷史事件，遷徙營有其發生的特定時空，敘述遷徙營是為了回到歷史過去以還原史實；作為歷史創傷，遷徙營記憶的「時間後延性」（temporal belatedness）則足以連繫不同時空，敘述遷徙營的重點也不再只是史實挖掘，而是透過不斷的歷史敘述與傳衍的過程，去延伸事件的衝擊力與渲染力。論文第一部分先勾勒出一個日美遷徙營的敘述史，了解遷徙營歷史在不同論述情境下被賦予的不同意義，並討論這些不同敘述模式帶來的論述意涵與侷限。接著，筆者援引拉卡柏（Dominick LaCapra）、卡露思（CathyCaruth）、凱普蘭（E. Ann Kaplan）、以及班涅特（Jill Bennett）等學者對創傷結構與歷史書寫的見解，特別是創傷如何締造記憶時延的動能，思索創傷時間如何能被挪轉為有意義的文化批判時間，並藉此導引出一個敘述遷徙營的新模式。論文最後一部份從創傷跨界與時延的角度閱讀史塔吉（John Sturges）執導的《黑岩喋血記》（Bad Day at Black Rock; 1954），透過對日美遷徙營歷史一種創傷式的閱讀，探索遷徙營創傷效應穿越時間與族裔邊界的可能。

Investigating the narrative history of Japanese American relocation camps, this paper studies the changing modes of relocation narratives and seeks in the efforts of activating the relocation’s traumatic contagious force a new model and ethics of writing history. I propose to read the Japanese American relocation not simply as an event that occurred in a historical past but as a trauma. In the case of the former, the relocation studies call for a return to a specific time and place and a restoration of the Japanese American internees’ experiences. In the case of the latter, emphases are shifted to the impact of the relocation, whose transferential potential is not confined to any singular time, place, generation, or ethnic group. The first part of the paper surveys the significance and limitations of existing narratives that give the relocation different meanings. The second part draws on Dominick LaCapra, Cathy Caruth, E. Ann Kaplan, and Jill Bennett to explore the temporal belatedness of trauma and locate in “traumatic time” a space of critical negotiations and conceptual innovations. The last section analyzes John Sturges’s Hollywood feature Bad Day at Black Rock (1954) as a textual example to illustrate the contagiousness of relocation memories across time and beyond the Japanese American community.