多元文化主义与亚裔美国文学经典建构的困境

Dilemma of Asian American Canon Formation within the Context of Multiculturalism

依赖于身份政治的多元文化主义实践复刻了美国固有的社会等级与权力关系,族裔文学的经典化和学科制度化进程也因此产生了具有强烈排外意识的民族主义,严重影响了亚裔美国文学自我定位。初期的亚裔美国文学经典建构非但未能摆脱身份政治的影响,反而以更激进的方式承认和继承了其种族主义内涵。尽管当代亚裔美国文学试图将跨国性与全球性视角融入到文学经典建构之中,期冀重新阐释多元文化主义,消解种族主义影响,但由于其将文学经典与政治诉求结合在一起,一味强调亚裔文学经典的族裔真实性和特殊性,从而再次回到了身份政治的桎梏之中。考察亚裔美国文学的经典建构,有助于深入了解美国多元文化主义的本质,明晰美国亚裔文学乃至族裔文学的身份危机。

Canon formation in the American context operates on the principle of identity politics and thus replicates the American social hierarchy and power discourses.As a result,it endows the institutionalization of multiculturalism with exclusive nationalism and shapes the self-positioning of Asian American Literature.Asian American canon formation in the early periods failed to get rid of identity politics and the attempt to rectify the conceptualization turns out to be a more radical approach to acknowledge and inherit its racist doctrine.And despites contemporary efforts of integrating a transnational or global perspective in hope of redefining multiculturalism and invalidating the racist exclusivism,such a canon with emphasis on ethnic particularism fails to arrive at the roots of the Asian literary canon formation for its political appeals and emphasis on ethnical authority and particularity.Therefore,it is contended that the exploration into Asian American canon formation contributes to a further understanding of American multiculturalism as well as shedding light on the predicament of Asian and even ethnic American literary production.