“十七年”时期中国少数民族题材电影的共同意识叙事

Narrative of a Common Consciousness in Chinese Ethnic Minority-themed Films in the“Seventeen-Years”Period

以“共同意识”作为切入点,采用较为深度的泛文本语境方法,对“十七年”时期少数民族题材电影作品进行叙事层面的剖析,尝试对其间的话语策略进行归纳,并着重探讨其如何通过影像化、故事化叙述共同历史、共同故事,诠释民族关系和党的民族理论与政策,探讨影像与时代话语间的互动关系,分析个体身份与中华民族认同的建构路径。这一时期有着独特的叙事话语方式,总是倾向于以国家话语统合族群、家庭观念,以家国情感取代个体情感,以阶级认同重构他者阵营、以阶级矛盾替代故事冲突从而实现国家意识形态融入民族题材的书写;其间旖旎多姿的少数民族地域风光再现、与汉杂糅的少数民族民俗风情再造、敢于斗争的少数民族女性形象塑造,又在一定程度上成就了民族话语对国家话语兼容之下的“黄金年代”,并成为时代符号而深深嵌入一代观众的集体记忆当中;还多采用黑暗与光明的象征、身体与疾病的隐喻、身份与认同的建构等方式进行共同文化的叙事。经由国家话语的规训、民族话语的兼容以及“国族、家国同构”的话语体系,如何建构关于新中国的文化想象与共同体想象,塑造出一个通过异域空间、民族风情、人物形象等景观展示出来的“共和国”,将各民族同胞通过少数民族题材电影凝聚在一起,通过“讲述过去”“讲述当下”,进而“塑造未来”,从而印证“意识形态工具是‘十七年’时期少数民族题材电影的话语本质”这一结论。

During the “ Seventeen Years ”(1949-1966),there were forty-eight feature films about the lives of eighteen ethnic minorities in China. The ethnic minority-themed films during the“ Seventeen-Years ” period are known as the“Golden Age” in the history of Chinese ethnic minority-themed films. Borrowing the concept of“common consciousness” from sociology as an entry point and adopting a relatively in-depth pan-text context method, this paper analyzes the narrative level of minority-themed films during this period and attempts to summarize the relevant discourse strategies. It mainly focuses on the following three issues: 1) How are visualization and storytelling strategies used in narrating a common history;2)the interpretation of ethnic relations and the party’s ethnic theory and policy to explain the interactive relationship between images and the discourse of the period;3) discerning a construction path of both individual identity and the Chinese national identity.The special social and cultural context in the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of China led to the conclusion that the national discourse of ethnic minorities must be incorporated into the writing system of a national discourse. Findings indicate this period gave birth to a unique and similar way of narrative discourse. It always tended to integrate ethnic groups and family concepts into the national discourse,replace individual emotions with those of the “family-country”,reconstruct the other camp with class identity, and replace story conflicts with class contradictions. The inherent ideology was “encoded and fixed in the form of formulas and conventions”. During this period,reproductions can be seen of beautiful and vivid ethnic minority regional landscapes, recreated blends of ethnic folk customs and Han culture,and the birth of female minority characters who dare to fight. To a certain extent,these films helped to achieve the“golden age” in which individual discourse was compatible with national discourse,they became a symbol of the times and were deeply embedded in the collective memory of a generation of audiences.Through symbols of darkness and light and the metaphors of body and disease,wide dissemination could be noticed of,for example,the construction of identity as well as narratives of common “spiritual conversion”,common “disease healing”,and common value culture. Meanwhile, various ethnic groups appear to become united as one for a common ideal and value so as to realize the construction of a national identity and produce an extremely powerful empathy and “summoning” power.This study discusses how the narratives of the minority-themed film in the “ Seventeen Years ”constructed a cultural imagination and community imagination of the People’s Republic of China through the discipline of national discourse, the compatibility of national discourse, and the discourse system of “ nation,family and country isomorphism”,and how these films have shaped the“Republic” through displaying exotic spaces,ethnic customs,characters,and bringing compatriots of all ethnicities together. The purpose of this article is to further sort out the relationships between minority-themed films,forge a sense of community for the Chinese nation,and explore the significance of the development of minority-themed film narratives in this period.