宣传抑或艺术:从非裔美国戏剧史上的三次论战说起

Propaganda or Art: On Three Debates in the History of the African American Theatre

宣传抑或艺术,这个问题一直困扰着非裔美国戏剧,成为历代非裔美国剧作家和理论家们争论不休的一个话题,也持续吸引了美国主流戏剧家的广泛关注。本研究从非裔美国戏剧史上的三次著名论战切入,截取了非裔美国戏剧发展早期、成熟期以及全盛时期这三个具有代表性的时间段,分别以杜波依斯宣传派和洛克的艺术戏剧派之间的对抗、巴拉卡激进戏剧与布林斯的体验戏剧之间的冲突、以及威尔逊和布鲁斯汀的论战为例,以厘清非裔美国戏剧领域里"宣传抑或艺术"这一论题的重要性和复杂性,从而展现非裔美国戏剧在发展过程中体现出的独特性、多样性,并确定它在美国戏剧里应有的地位。

Propaganda or art, this is a choice which has been troubling the African American Theatre since its very birth, and also a lasting topic on which generations of black dramatists themselves have disputed. In the 1920 s, the African American Theatre was torn between DuBois’ s propaganda school and Locke’s Art-Theatre. The dispute reached new heights in the 1960 s with the friction between Baraka’s Militant Theatre and Bullins’ s Theatre of Experience. The debate between Wilson and Brustein seems to confirm that the breach still remains unbridgeable in the contemporary theater community. However, the fusion of propaganda and art is also detectable in these debates, albeit in different forms. A critical survey of the three major debates would suffice to delineate how significant and complicated the propaganda or art issue has been and how its evolution has contributed to the African American Theatre and American Theatre in general.