白人性研究:族裔文学研究新视角

Whiteness Studies:A New Perspective on Ethnic Literary Studies

1990年代既见证了所谓“理论的终结”,又见证了白人性研究的迅速崛起。“白人性”是指以白人肤色为基础建构起来的一套种族制度或神话。它无处不在却又隐而不见,被视为种族主义问题的根结所在。白人性研究从1960年代以来的批评理论中借鉴批评方法和话语资源,把批判的武器对准自认为没有问题的白人一方,去反思和批判以白人性为中心的诸多问题,包括白人性的社会建构、白人特权与霸权以及无知作为种族主义同谋的方式等。它的最终目的是为了揭示不公正的等级制度被制造、维系和再生的深层机制,为实现真正的种族正义和平等创造条件。同时,白人性研究所提出的新概念、新理论也为文学和文化批评实践提供了启发。如何避免本质主义思维以及被学术化的命运则是它需要解决的主要问题。

The 1990s witnessed both the so-called“end of Theory”and the rapid rise of whiteness studies.“Whiteness”refers to a racial system or mythology based upon white skin.Omnipresent while invisible,it is the root cause of racism.Borrowing critical approaches and discourses from critical theories since the 1960s,whiteness studies targets what is beyond question in the racial structure:whiteness,and by so doing,reflects and critiques many issues that center on whiteness.Through examining the construction of whiteness,white privilege and supremacy,as well as white ignorance as a means of complicity,whiteness studies endeavors to expose the deep mechanisms which structure,maintain and reproduce an unfair hierarchy,so as to pave the way for the realization of racial justice and equality in the real sense.Whiteness studies can help literary and cultural studies through its new concepts and theories,while it also faces the dilemma of essentialism and institutionalization.