書寫南亞英國女性：以蜜拉•賽耶爾的《安妮塔與我》及《生活不全是嘻嘻哈哈》為例

Abstract

本論文主要藉由閱讀印度裔英國女性作家蜜拉•賽耶爾（Meera Syal）的《安妮塔與我》及《生活不全是嘻嘻哈哈》以探討身為英國南亞移民的蜜拉•賽耶爾如何書寫其離散經驗及南亞裔女性對於英國和原生文化雙重影響的回應。生於長於英國的蜜拉•賽耶爾在其成長過程中深受充滿西方意識型態的英國文化影響，同時又受到原生印度文化的教導和傳統觀念的約束，身兼劇作家、作家、製作人及演員等多重身分的她成功地將其生命經驗以詼諧卻深刻的方式投射於作品之中。蜜拉•賽耶爾初試啼聲之作《安妮塔與我》描繪在英國六○年代下，一個居住在已漸凋零的挖礦社區裡的南亞移民家庭和其白人鄰居，又或和時常來訪的南亞裔故友們之間有著趣味卻又發人省思的互動，尤其蜜拉•賽耶爾帶領讀者透過九歲女主角蜜娜（Meena Kumar）的觀點去觀察身處在移民家庭和西方文化之間的第二代青少年如何面對不同文化的衝突，以及她如何在雙重文化夾擊下去摸索並釐清自身的歸屬感，在蜜娜找尋自我的過程中，她意識到自身的中介特質（in-betweenness）不再是一種徬徨的不確定性（uncertainty），反而是一種她所特有的優勢。蜜拉•賽耶爾的第二本小說《生活不全是嘻嘻哈哈》不同於前本小說的人物、時空等背景敘事，進一步地刻劃成熟南亞裔女性在婚姻、兩性關係及家庭之間所面臨到更為複雜、更為難解的生命課題。延續著南亞移民第二代身處雙重文化下的自我徬徨，《生活不全是嘻嘻哈哈》中的三位女主角生活在英國九○年代晚期的倫敦大都會，而蜜拉•賽耶爾正是藉由這三位有著不同的成長背景及性格的女性呈現出更為寫實並震撼人心的文化、家庭甚至是兩性之間的衝突和矛盾，她們必須在傳統責任（家庭、婚姻及族群）及個人意志之間找出一個平衡點，甚至做出抉擇。從《安妮塔與我》到《生活不全是嘻嘻哈哈》，蜜拉•賽耶爾書寫出身處英國的南亞裔女性對於自我的體悟、檢視、反思進而建構主體的過程，而蜜拉•賽耶爾所定義出的南亞英國女性正是本論文所關切並討論的重點。

By reading Meera Syal’s Anita and Me and Life isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee, this thesis project would like to explore how the South Asian British woman writer Meera Syal writes about diasporic experiences especially that of the second generations of immigrant women. I shall first present a review of histories about the South Asians’ immigration to Britain as well as the background of Meera Syal to see how she relates her own lived experiences with her professional career as a playwright, writer, producer and actress. Syal’s debut novel, Anita and Me, portrays how an Indian immigrant family interacts with their British neighbors in a sub-urban area during the 1960s. Through the perspective of the nine-year-old protagonist, Syal depicts the acute sense of dislocation of this child of an immigrant family and the later (re)formation of her identity. Her second novel, Life isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee, which can be seen as a kind of sequel to Anita and Me, focuses instead on the lives of three adult women of South Asian descent. By presenting the lives of the three London women in the late 1990s, Syal illustrates the tremendous changes that women of South Asian are facing in terms of relationships and belief systems. Syal discloses a more complex yet reality-reflecting account of circumstances faced by South Asian women in Britain. From Anita and Me to Life isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee, the different age groups and settings sketch a relatively comprehensive spectrum of South Asian British womanhood.