从私密文化再到公共象征：美洲非裔艺术“物的生命史”研究

From Private Culture to Public Symbol: A study of the “life history of things” in African American Art

当代美洲非裔艺术研究显现出一种典型方法论思潮。学者们采用“物的社会生命史”方法,讨论了物从“私密之物”到再到“国家公共象征”社会生命流转过程。学者布朗、罗卡与乔瓦瑟分别在其美洲非裔艺术研究中,通过追踪“物”的社会生命史,去区分同一个“物”在不同历史阶段身份及意义,观察“物”从普通之物再到国家象征之身份转变历程。同时,当代美洲非裔艺术研究中体现了一种典型问题意识,即将“物”作为一种国家认同“武器”,实现了文化政治上身份认同。当代美洲非裔文化呈现“回到原初”与“再非洲化”思潮,正是在此非裔文化再挪用过程之中,非裔宗教物质从宗教私密文化流转到国家公共文化象征,从而实现非裔文化国家认同意义。

A typical methodological trend of thought has emerged in contemporary African American art research.Scholars have taken the method of“social life history of things”to discuss the social life transferring process from“private things”to“national public symbols”.Three scholars,David Brown,Roger Roca and Maya Chvaicer,in their African American art studies,respectively distinguished the identity and significance of the same thing in different historical stages by tracing its social life history,and observe the process of the identity transformation of it from an ordinary thing to a national symbol.At the same time,in the study of contemporary African American art,a typical problem consciousness appeared,which is to take a“thing”as a“weapon”of national identity to achieve cultural and political identity.Contemporary African American culture presents the trend of“back to the original”and“re-Africanization”.It is in the process of re-appropriation of African American culture that African American religious materials flow from religious private culture to national public cultural symbols,thus realizing the significance of national identity of African-American culture.