詹姆斯·鲍德温的文学“弑父”与美国黑人文学的转向

James Baldwin's Literary Patricide and African American Literature Turn

20世纪40年代末,美国黑人作家詹姆斯.鲍德温对他在文学创作上的引路人、当时美国黑人文学的代表人物赖特进行了猛烈攻击,这一举动符合布鲁姆所说的文学发展进程中的“弑父”行为。鲍德温在文学上的“弑父”与他个人生活中的“弑父”情结相关,而更深层的动因则在于当时美国黑人文学正经历由赖特式的“抗议小说”向拉尔夫.埃利森为代表的新型黑人文学转向。作为其间的过渡人物,鲍德温在描写黑人人性、展示黑人文化、提升黑人文学的艺术水平、探索种族歧视与冲突问题等方面,都提出了超越赖特的抗议文学主张,但他本人的思想观念和创作实践又还存在诸多自相矛盾之处。“弑父”使赖特和鲍德温两败俱伤,具有浓烈悲剧色彩,但它是美国黑人文学发展过程中的一个必然环节,客观上具有积极意义。

At the end of 1940s, Wright＇ s protégé, James Baldwin, an American black ephebe, advanced an unrelenting criticism of naturalism by Richard Wright, the precursor in African American literary circle. Baldwin＇ s action, which might be interpreted as the literary patricide described in Harold Bloom＇ s The Anxiety of Influence, was more triggered by the upcoming turn of African-American writing from protest school to modernism triumphantly achieved by Ralph Ellison, rather than motivated by the patricide complex in Baldwin＇ s life experience. Though Baldwin took the initiative in depicting black humanity, advocating black culture, uplifting black literature and exploring racial discrimination and conflict, trying to transcend Richard＇ s protest writing, his writing principles revealed certain inconsistencies and dilemma. Baldwin＇s personal and literary patricides brought about internecine both to Wright and himself, but it is an indispensable tache in the African-American literature progress, so its positive significance must never be overlooked.