扮黑演白：美國視覺奇觀下的騙徒文化與種族瞞混

Abstract

本計畫的主題是十九世紀以迄二十世紀初期美國「騙徒文化」與「種族瞞混」之間的牽絲攀藤，不但要爬梳騙徒文化中的種族面向，還要用騙徒文化的相關論述來剖析種族瞞混的文本，以探究種族瞞混與「真假難辨」、「流動不定」等重要美國國族特質之間的微妙呼應。 我要討論的文本可分為兩類。一類是美國史上首位知名藝人巴能(P. T. Barnum)的自傳以及由他搬演的各種真假難辨的展示秀。另一類則是十九世紀末二十世紀初出版的數部與種族瞞混有關的作品，主要作者包括三位非裔作家哈婄(Frances Harper)、哈布金絲(Pauline Hopkins)、切斯納(Charles W. Chesnutt)。 儘管美國的騙徒文化看似白人的專屬表演場域，與混血兒從事的種族瞞混似乎關連不大，但細究之下，這兩種社會文化現象暨相關論述實一脈相承，多所呼應。我在本計畫中主要會從「視覺奇觀」的角度切入，來審視這種複雜曖昧的呼應。我認為騙徒文化及種族瞞混雖然看似不同，但都點出種族身份即是一種與視覺有關的扮演。若說巴能的騙術是表演「黑」，種族瞞混即是表演「白」。但不論扮黑抑或演白，兩者都開拓出了某個模糊地帶，讓觀眾及讀者得以透過視覺奇觀，得到斜看及歪讀的機會，重新審視「黑」與「白」之間那道模糊吊詭的界線。

In this project, I would like to examine the complex relationships between the cultures of confidence men and racial passing in nineteenth and early twentieth century America. I not only will investigate the racial aspect of the cultures of confidence men, but will also discuss several texts of racial passing in terms of deception and con game, so that one can read racial passing as corresponding to important U.S. national characteristics such as fluidity, transition, and changeability. The materials that I will use can be divided into two groups. First, I will look at P. T. Barnum, the most well-known entertainer in nineteenth centuryAmerica, and discuss his 1855 autobiography, the famous Barnum’s American Museum, and the various shows and exhibitions that he put on both inside and outside the American Museum. Secondly, I will analyze several turn-of-the century African American novels related to the theme of racial passing, including Iola Leroy by Frances Harper, Contending Forces and Of One Blood by Pauline Hopkins, and The House behind the Cedars by Charles W. Chesnutt. Even though the cultures of confidence men seem to belong to white men only and have nothing to do with racial passing, I argue that confidence men and racial passing were in fact ambiguously connected to each other. I will use the notion of visual spectacles to examine this complicated connection. In my opinion, both the cultures of confidence men and the discourses of racial passing illustrate the fact that racial identity is a visual performance. While Barnum’s art of deception performs blackness, racial passing performs whiteness, and both of them carve out an ambiguous space, in which the audience and readers, via visual spectacles, could see or read otherwise, and reexamine the tenuous line drawn between “blackness” and “whiteness.”