影像代偿:好莱坞电影中“精英黑人”的影像表征

Image Compensation: The Image Representation of “Elite Black” in Hollywood Films

影像转向的语境下,影像开始替代口头语言和文字成为受众认知世界的主要媒介。但即便是影像,也并非一定是对现实的客观再现。作为“造梦”装置的电影,以影像作为主要的表现手段,极具逼真效果,极易被误认为“现实”。在部分好莱坞电影中,黑人形象已经摆脱了早期的缺位状态或者刻板形象,更多以“精英黑人”的形象出现。但这种精英化的影像表征不一定是真实的。事实上,电影通过指涉现实等方式,消解了虚拟影像与现实之间的边界,使“精英黑人”的电影形象变得逼真和普遍,掩盖了黑人群体在现实中的真实社会地位。进而,电影作为一种影像层面的代偿,通过涵化观众的认知,在一定程度上戏剧性地消解了现实中的社会和阶级矛盾。

Under the background of image turn, image began to replace oral language and text and become the main medium for the audience to understand the world. But even images are not necessarily the objective representations of reality. As a “dream making” device, movies take images as the main means of expression. Having highly realistic effects, movies are prone to be mistaken for “reality”. In some Hollywood films, the black have got rid of the early vacancy or stereotype, and appear more often as the “Elite Black”. But this elite image representation is not necessarily real. In fact, by referring to reality, the movies deconstruct the boundary between virtual image and reality, making the image of “Elite Black” in movies real and universal, and thus covering up the real social status of the black communities in reality. Furthermore, as a kind of image compensation, film dramatically dispels the social and class conflicts in reality to a certain extent by affecting the audience’s cognition.