遷移的家園：論《密西西比的馬薩拉》之印度離散再現

Becoming Home: Representation of Indian Diaspora in Mississippi Masala

本文從家園歸屬的問題出發，討論奈耶的電影《密西西比的馬薩拉》。奈耶對印度離散的處理，細膩地載入殖民歷史與種族問題的糾結，一方面交織鋪陳帝國與後殖民情境的歷時共構，與家園爭議中多層次的種族傾軋，一方面從跨越種族本位的視野，質疑家與種族血胤緊密連結的家園論述之排外主義。透過一個印度裔家庭的多重遷移故事，《密西西比的馬薩拉》不僅暴顯白人霸權對有色族裔的歷史性、結構性壓迫，更正面呈現認同的流動揉雜，肯定越界與新聯繫的創造。奈耶的視域指向的，是班哈碧所倡言，不斷與既有的想像疆界反覆協商調整的多元文化社會。

Taking the issue of home as its point of departure, this paper examines Indian director Mira Nair's treatment of Indian diaspora in her 1991 film Mississippi Masala. It explores the idea that Nair, by carefully attending to the entanglements of racial problems and colonial history, delineates multi-layered racial conflicts in the post-colonial condition, on the one hand, and presents a diasporic view of home and migration in challenge of the racial/national exclusionism, on the other hand. Through the story of an Indian family's repeated experience of migration, Mississippi Masala not only exposes the historical and structural oppression of white hegemony, but also valorizes fluid and hybrid identities, celebrates border-crossing, and seeks connections and development. Mississippi Masala is oriented towards the kind of multicultural society Benhabib envisions, one in which cultures continually negotiate with the imagined boundaries and create room for adjustments and evolution.