以“空间中的身体”为符号——20世纪80年代中国电影中“农民老父亲”的群氓形象和视觉叙事

“Bodies-in-Space”as Symbols:Rural-Old-Fathers as“a Mob of Illiterates”in the 1980s’Chinese Films from the Perspective of Visual Narrative

中国农村题材电影塑造了大量隐喻性的“农民老父亲”形象,以此阐释农村社会关系、人与土地的关系和城乡关系。在20世纪80年代,“农民老父亲”群像脱离了智慧老人的文化原型,从革命和建设的先锋英雄转化为有待启蒙的群氓,并通过强化图像叙事、减弱语言叙事的方式,使图像的隐喻性更为突出。“空间中的身体”是该影像的核心,关系到人与环境的各类对比关系,其内涵可以向性别、阶层、个体/集体、公共/私人多个面向展开。苦味肖像、“劳动空间中的身体”和“人际空间中的身体”三类图像是分析的切入点。肖像镜头背离了中国电影传统,呈现出大面积阴影、沉默和隐匿表情的共同特点。“劳动空间中的身体”图像突出身体和劳作空间的关系,强调身体性(暗示劳作),忽视个体主体性的体现。“人际空间中的身体”图像将视觉传统中“父—子”间隐喻性的上下空间关系反转呈现,将父亲们描述为既处于对立立场又缺乏话语权的旁观者,需要被“子一代”启蒙。“空间中的身体”作为符号帮助建立“农民老父亲”的群氓形象,将相关的文化、经验、意识形态和价值观视觉化,参与启蒙叙事,同时,也将“父亲们”塑造成他者化的“沉默的异化的劳动机器”,参与了对城乡界限的意指实践,使之成为银幕上的文化地理学案例。

In Chinese rural films many symbolic rural-old-father images were created to elaborate various rural social relationships,human-land and rural-urban relationships.In the 1980s’films,rural-old-father images departed from the wise-old-man cultural archetype,changing from heroes of revolution and construction to backward,conservative and need-to-be-enlightened“illiterates”.The symbolic images were made more prominent as the visual narrative was enhanced while language narrative was decreased.As the center of the images of rural-old-fathers,“bodies-in-space”reflected various human-environment contrastive relationships,extending to gender,class,individual/collective,public/private dimensions.Three types of images were portrayed as starting points of analysis:bitter portraits,“bodies-in-workspace”,and“bodies-in-interpersonal space”.Different from Chinese visual tradition,portraits of rural fathers shared such features as large areas of shadow,silence and hidden facial expressions.“Bodies-in-workspace”were images emphasizing bodies in work,while ignoring individual subjectivity.“Bodies-in-interpersonal space”placed“father-son”relationship in a reversed“up-down”spatial one,depicting the rural old fathers as onlookers without discourse power in the opposite position who needed to be enlightened by their sons.“Bodies in space”as symbols facilitated the portrayal of“rural old fathers”as a mob of illiterates,visualizing relevant culture,experience,ideologies and values into the narrative of enlightenment,and as“silent work machines”who contributed to demarcation of the rural-urban boundaries,thus setting examples for cultural geography on the screen.