| 中文摘要 |
本文閱讀辛西亞‧角畑（Cynthia Kadohata）之作品《浮世》（The Floating World），旨在探討小說中所呈現的家、旅行與工作之主題與意象，並指出這三個主題其中所牽涉（不）流動的議題。出版於1989年，本篇小說篇幅不長，描述一個日裔家庭三代的生活，在五〇、六〇年代，隨著工作轉換而在美國西岸不斷旅行、搬遷至阿肯色州的過程，以此方式再現第二、三代日裔美國人之生活情境與困境。本文將探究兩方面的議題：（一）小說《浮世》呈現的家有何特殊性。不同於一般想像，小說裡的家並非穩定、扎根於一處的居所，甚至可以說是一種流動的家；（二）小說呈現的旅行與工作之關聯，兩者皆具有流動意涵──前者是地域性的流動，而後者則是社會階級的流動。然而，小說中的旅行與工作往往也意味著無法流動，與家的不穩定性有著一定的關聯。換言之，藉由分析小說中的家、旅行與工作等主題與意象，本文希冀凸顯隱藏在文本底層的另一根本議題，即二十世紀中期、二次大戰後日裔美國人所面臨（不）流動的問題。
This paper seeks to focus on the issues of home, travel, and travail, all of which involve the idea of (im)mobility in the Japanese American novel, Cynthia Kadohata's The Floating World, published in 1989. Depicting the dilemma faced by the second and third generations of Japanese Americans in the wake of World War II, The Floating World represents a Japanese American family, traveling along the west coast of the U.S. and moving their home to Arkansas, as the father changes or searches for jobs in the 1950s and 1960s. The paper is divided into two parts; in the first part, “homes” are imagined in a different way than the traditional conception of home as a stable, rooted site of dwelling where identity is formed and the sense of belonging is nurtured. Indeed, in The Floating World, homes are mobile. In the second part, the ideas of travel and travail are intertwined with each other. The former involves geographical, territorial mobility while the latter leads to social mobility. Nevertheless, both are implicated in the economy of immobility and related to the instability of home in the novel. By analyzing the ideas and images of home, travel and travail, this paper intends to foreground the underlying issue, the problem of (im)mobility, confronted by Japanese Americans in postwar America in the mid-twentieth century. |
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