族群的历史言说:马来、马英、马华文学的族群关系书写与新历史主义

The Utterance for History among the Ethnic Groups:Writing of Ethnic Relations between Malaysian, Malaysian-English and Malaysian-Chinese Literatures and New Historicism

根植于多元种族土地的国家——马来西亚,国内的三大语文——马来文、英文和中文文学作品中的族群关系书写,既提供了国家特定时期的历史见证,也揭示了政治环境操作的机制,很大程度上表现了现实的真实。无论是本土作者,或一些旅居国外的马华和马英作者,纷纷在文学创作中以各种艺术手法来表现对有关议题的思考。新历史主义倡导的"历史——文学"互为参照的理论为此研究提供了新的视角。本文借助斯蒂芬.格林布莱特(Stephen Greenblatt),海登.怀特(Hayden White)、福柯(Mitchell Foucault)等人的历史理论,将三种语文的族群关系书写的各种叙事模式,以个案为例进行文本评述与分析,阐释族群书写在各种意识形态之下的寓意,并且论证"族群"如何作为书写的符号系统,被马来西亚作者应用为建构另一种历史的实践。

The writing of ethnic relations in literary works written in Malaysian, English and Chinese, three main languages in Malaysia, a nation rooted in multi-ethnic soil, not only provides historical evidence for specific periods of the nation but also reveals the mechanisms operating in political circumstances, representing the true realities to a great extent. Native writers or Malaysian-Chinese or Malaysian-English writers abroad have expressed their thoughts on relevant topics in a variety of artistic manners. The theory of‘historical-literary cross-referencing＇as promoted by new historicism has provided new perspectives on this study. Based on the historical theories by Stephen Greenblatt, Hayden White and Michel Foucault, this article samples individual cases from a variety of writings about the ethnic relations in the three languages for textual commentaries and analysis, explicating the significance of ethnic writings in various ideologies and demonstrating how Malaysian writers use‘ethnic groups＇ as a symbol of writing in their construction of another historical practice.