空間、移動、易名與身份建構 － 評《水之色》

Mobility, Renaming, and Identity Construction: Reading James McBride’s The Color of Water

在美國，移動力代表「重新開始、改造自我的契機」。移動，不僅是身體住居的遷移，更是追尋心靈寓托的過程。移動的用意在於不受束縛；不斷移位、不斷變化，就不至於輕易被定位、被歸入建制轄下接受管控。透過移動而逃離原處無法忍受的常態，逃開束縛，正是美國移動力的中心思維：遠行找尋真自我。淺田彰引德勒茲和瓜達理的遊牧根莖論—以開發「路線（route）」取代根深柢固的「根（root）」—提出現代人須調整心態面對社會威權的束縛與壓制，以策略性不斷地「逃開」「逃離」學校、家庭、社會既定窠臼，以不斷移動變化建構新自我。此一觀點點出移動性概念的真意。易名與移動互為影響。命名在美國歷史上是一種權力的運作，命名者有宰制權，被命名者受宰制；易名可說是爭取宰制權的手段。然而，須先掙脫囿限的社會網絡方可能開拓新局，獲得主導權建構新自我、新身份。美國黑白混血作家麥布萊德的自傳《水之色》以其母露絲和自己不斷移動作為生命模式的敘事，闡述若要不受威權宰制、做自己、建構主體性，就必須具備移動力。「移動」看似「逃離」，卻非消極定義的「逃離」，反而是積極在移動中接觸新事物，看清自己；這「逃離」乃是逃出既定的思考窠臼，離開並不合適的價值體系處所，以改善現況劣勢。書中人物移動意象可說是心靈移動的轉喻，以「逃離」的空間位移來脫離生命困窘、並建構新自我、新身分。本文以美國觀點下的移動力析論《水之色》，探究移動力、易名與身份建構之間關係。

The American idea of mobility contains the idea of escaping from intolerant normality. Mobility, or moving around, is not only a physical moving but also a psychological quest for true self. The ability to move around symbolizes escaping from claustrophobic life in one’s native place. Elaborating on Deleuze and Guattari’s (1980) rhizome concept to replace roots with routes, Asada (1984) urges modern men to resist the authoritative, oppressive, and established constraints by running away from any form of institutional system like family, school, and social systems, i.e., the roots. By constant moves, one develops routes of different categories and with the new routes to foster a more constructive self. The practicability of the run-away strategy indeed expands the depth of the idea of mobility. Mobility and re/naming often interplay with each other. Naming is an exercise of power because those who name also control. From the perspective of identity construction, renaming is deemed as self-designation; it indicates social and economic freedom, the birth of a truly new self. Renaming interacts with mobility on constructing identity. This paper analyzes the correlations between mobility, renaming, and identity construction in James McBride’s The Color of Water. James McBride, his mother Ruth McBride Jordon, and his maternal grandfather Old Shilsky have experienced a “double dispossession” in their native places and have tried moving away and renaming themselves to construct new identities along new routes through their mobility.