他們往那去了！ 審美/道德煽動之緊迫性美國戲劇— 以Sam Shepard 與 Neil Simon 的作品為例

They Go!—The Urgency of Aesthetic/Moral Incitement in American Drama: The Work of Sam Shepard and Neil Simon

在這篇論文中，我檢視了兩位美國戲劇作家，Sam Shepard 和Neil Simon 的著 作。他們的寫法都承襲了一股美國藝術道德家的傳統風格。這個傳統是審美與道德 兩股文化刺激的結合，數十年來一直薰陶著美國的藝術文化。 戲劇公開、口述、台上人物直接面對觀眾「傾訴」且觀眾與台上人物有一定程 度”互動”的形式，提供了深入審視這個論文主題的機會。戲劇表達的不只是以活生 生的道德寓言方式所傳達的訓誡，舞台也提供了一種似法庭的場景，勾勒出為好行 為辯護的人們，以及為辯護或反對不當行為挺身「做證」的「證人們」，目的都不 外乎在於以戲劇的訊息和內容做出「公正」的判決。 Shepard 和Simon 在政治上是針鋒相對的。Shepard 是一位激烈的對立主義戲劇 作家，傳達出黯淡及因注入尖酸的幽默更顯得不祥的主題。Simon 是一位走中道的 續劇作家，承襲著保守道德觀和人道主義的傳統。雖然這兩位戲劇作家有很大的差 異，但我們發現他們都各自舉著美國道德家的火把，顯現這個傳統如何深入地存在 於不同的文學風格。

In this paper I examine works from two American dramatists， Sam Shepard and Neil Simon， who write within an American artist-moralist tradition. This tradition is an amalgamation of aesthetic and moral stimuli that has conditioned American arts for decades. The drama format—public， oral， with characters “speaking” to audiences， and audiences having a measure of “interaction” with live figures on stage—provides an insightful look at this topic. The messages in drama not only become a kind of preaching， with the presentation of living examples of moral parables， but the stage also becomes a kind of tribunal， highlighting the importance of “defenders” of best behavior， and “witnesses” who can “testify” in defense of or in opposition to inappropriate behavior， all with the aim of reaching “just” verdicts on a play’s messages and content. Shepard and Simon are at ends of the political and cultural spectrum. Shepard is a fiery dramatist of contradiction， conveying gloomy themes made even more foreboding by an injection of acidic humor and violence. Simon is a middle-of-the-road playwright， emerging from a tradition of conservative moral values with a humanistic edge. Different as these two dramatists are， we find that they each take up the American moralist torch， showing how this tradition insinuates its way into diverse styles.