尋求解放之路：《斯土斯子》中的階級與種族正義叩問

On the Road to Liberation: Class and Racial Justice in Native Son

賴特（Richard Wright）在1940年出版的《斯土斯子》（Native Son）以芝加哥黑人帶為背景，深入探發美國社會內部的結構性暴力，揭露黑白種族關係隱伏蠢動的危機。小說主人翁畢格（Bigger Thomas）的殘暴行為與情感疏離長久以來引發諸多爭議與探討。本文將這令人不安的芝加哥黑人帶敘事放回1930年代普羅文學運動的脈絡來檢視，探討積極參與普羅文學運動的賴特如何透過對美國種族關係的嚴峻呈現，批判性地聯結普羅運動訴求與非裔美國的正義叩問。論文指出，賴特透過對非裔美國困境與畢格存在掙扎的尖銳刻劃，一方面揭示資本主義與種族歧視結合的壓迫，一方面質疑馬克思式社會主義觀點與非裔美國經驗的悖離。這如威廉斯（RaymondWilliams）在討論作家使命時所指稱的批判性「結盟」，讓《斯土斯子》的社會批判視域不僅衝撞資本主義社會意識型態，也質疑美國共產組織抗爭路線，從而開啟以種族正義為核心的資本主義批判與反壓迫抗爭。

Published in 1940 and set in the black belt of Chicago, Richard Wright’s Native Son keenly investigates the structural violence ingrained in American society and exposes the lurking crisis of the fiercely tense racial relationship between black and white Americans. Since its publication, the brutal and alienated protagonist Bigger Thomas has ignited various polemics and discussions. Resituating the unsettling narrative of the black belt in the context of the Proletarian literary movement in the 1930s, this paper aims to discuss how Wright, as an active participant of the movement, critically aligns the African American struggle for justice with the quest of Proletarian movement through Native Son’s relentless portrayal of race relations in American society. It argues that in the novel, by sharply delineating the dire situation African America faces and Bigger’s existential struggle, Wright not only critically examines the combined oppression of capitalism and racism, but also challenges Marxist socialism with view to its failure in recognizing African American experiences. This critical vision, exemplifying the kind of“alignment”which Raymond Williams analyzes in his discussion of the writer’s commitment, challenges both the ideology of the capitalist society and the agenda of the class struggle upheld by American communists, opening up a line of inquiry which repositions the quest for racial justice in the center of the united struggle against oppressions.