美国“后种族时代”话语的建构与解构——从保罗·贝蒂《出卖》的讽刺艺术窥探当代美国的种族问题

Constructing and De-constructing America's " Post-racial” Discourse——Viewing Contemporary American Racial Issues from the Satirical Art in Paul Beatty's The Sellout

美国的种族主义,正如一些评论家所认为的,并未随着奴隶制和吉姆·克劳种族隔离的废止而终结,而是被"新种族主义"取代,"后种族时代"的美国处在一种黑白种族混合却不平等的状态。荣获2016年曼布克奖、美国黑人讽刺作家保罗·贝蒂的小说《出卖》凭借独特的讽刺艺术审视了"后种族时代"美国的黑人生活现状和种族关系问题。小说通过创造幽默和荒诞的虚构想象,揭露了当代美国根深蒂固的种族偏见,拆穿了"后种族时代"权力话语宣称的种族平等的虚假幻象;又通过建构对历史的批判性记忆,重塑了被消解的黑人种族意识,这对解构"新种族主义"霸权体系,从而实现真正意义上的种族平等具有一定的启发意义。

According to some critics, the demise of slavery and the abolition of Jim Crow Laws have not buried racism in America. Instead, the so-called ＂ post-racial＂ America is confronted with an ＂ integrate but unequal＂ state, which exemplifies the rise and expansion of ＂ New Racism＂. The Sellout, a novel by the black American satirist Paul Beatty and awarded The Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2016, meditates on the current situation of black Americans as well as racial issues in post-racial America in a satirical way. By means of humor and absurd fictionalization, The Sellout exposes the embedded racism in contemporary America and disillusions the myth of racial equality that has been propagated by ＂ post-racial ＂ discourse. Meanwhile, it rehabilitates black Americans＇ racial consciousness through its critical memory of history, which suggests the possibility to dissolve the hegemony of New Racism and achieve the racial equality in a real sense as well.