歷史之餘：當代非裔美國人劇場中缺席的父親們

Leftovers from History: Absent Fathers in Contemporary African American Theatre

本文探討不同年代的黑人（非裔美人）劇作家，威爾森（August Wilson,1945-2005）與帕克斯（Susan-Lori Parks, 1963-），如何以劇場來達成政治目的。他們的作品雖均強調種族歧視並批判主流文化，但兩者在處理歷史上黑人被「強迫缺席」的議題上，差異甚大。討論始於文學檔案裡，黑人家庭中缺席父親的刻板印象與事實，繼之探究生理、文化與歷史脈絡下的「父親」。本文援引洪席耶理論中關於「政治」、「感性政體」與「平等」的概念來討論兩位劇作家的主要作品《籬笆》（Fences,1983）與《美國劇》（The America Play, 1994），並主張帕克斯的觀眾，透過「感性政體的重新分配」， 能得到較大程度的「解放」。

This article explores how African American playwrights of different generations, August Wilson (1945-2005) and Susan-Lori Parks (1963-), employ theatre to carry out their political aims. While both of their works foreground racial discrimination and are critical of mainstream culture, Parks departs from Wilson in response to African Americans’ forced exclusion from history. My discussion begins by comparing the stereotypes and the facts surrounding absent fathers in African American families in light of literary archives, and then elaborates biological and cultural/historical notions of the “father.” Drawing on Jacques Ranciere’s ideas of “politics,” “regimes of the sensible” and “equality” to discuss these two playwrights’ master works, Fences and The America Play, the paper argues that Park’s work has a more emancipating effect on audiences through its “(re)-distribution of the sensible.”