White Guilt and Epic Theatre Elements in Fugard's The Train Driver
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摘要: 阿索尔·富加德是南非当代著名的自由主义剧作家,其2010年创作的独幕剧《火车司机》(The Train Driver)展示了白人司机在意外撞死了自杀的黑人妇女后难以化解的内心罪感和他在一名黑人掘墓人负责的墓地寻找该妇女坟墓的过程。该剧是富加德在后种族隔离时期最重要的作品。它不仅呈现了自由主义白人以往的罪感意识,即因种族隔离造成的社会不公难逃良心谴责的伦理状况,延续了以道德忏悔寻求与现实和解的艺术表达,还结合了布莱希特的“史诗戏剧”,揭示了新南非在种族隔离结束之后的历史困境,进而在新自由主义的语境当中审视白人罪感。本文的核心论证从“史诗戏剧”的形式入手,试图阐释在后种族隔离时期富加德对白人罪感的认识有何变化以及为何以“史诗戏剧”的形式来呈现罪感。文章展示了《火车司机》的独白对白人罪感的呈现,再分析了剧中对白、开场白和收场白的设置与产生的间离效果使得防止观众轻易认同于白人罪感。文章进一步指出墓地背景、守墓人的破败居所以及音响效果等舞台设计所指涉的新自由主义现实问题,进一步展现《火车司机》的戏剧形式所带来的间离效果促使观众理性思考:黑人妇女的死亡并非是白人司机的过错,而是新自由主义的现实所迫,但白人火车司机盲目在于其只感罪孽深重,而不去深究酿成悲剧的现实。本文发现,在《火车司机》中,富加德超越了其以往对罪感的认识,改变了戏剧呈现方式,意识到以仅获得罪感意识与伦理忏悔的方式不足与社会现实达成和解。由于时代的变迁,富加德选择以史诗戏剧的形式唤起观众探寻黑人命运无法得到改变的真相,从而呼吁观众在新自由主义的困境中思考酿成悲剧的根源,寻求新的种族和解之路。Abstract: Athol Fugard is a well-known contemporary liberalist playwright in South Africa. His one-act play, The Train Driver, is a story about the guilt of a white train driver who accidentally hit a black woman who was committing suicide and his journey of searching the woman's tomb at a graveyard in the charge of a black gravedigger. The Train Driver is Fugard's most important piece in the post-apartheid era. It presents liberal whites' sense of guilt, which is the ethical condition that whites cannot escape their conscience in face of the social injustices of apartheid, and continues the artistic expression of reaching reconciliation with reality through moral repentance.It also takes the form of Bertolt Brecht's "Epic Theatre" to reveal the historical predicament in New South Africa after the end of apartheid and then examines white guilt in the neoliberal context.This article focuses on form analysis, which is the "Epic Theatre" elements in The Train Driver. It tries to explain the change in Fugard's perception of white guilt in the post-apartheid era and why he chooses to take the form of an epic theatre to present it. The article shows how the monologue in The Train Driver presents white guilt, and then analyzes the setting of the dialogue, the prologue and epilogue and the alienation effect they create to prevent the audience from identifying with the white man and his guilt. Then, it further indicates the neoliberal issues involved in stage designs, such as the background of the cemetery, the dilapidated dwelling of the black gravedigger, and the sound effects, to demonstrate that the alienation effect of the theatrical form can arouse the audience to think rationally that the death of a black woman is not the fault of the white driver, but the result of the complex neoliberal reality. In this case, the white train driver still blindly bears the guilt,rather than looking into the roots of the tragedy.The article reveals that, in The Train Driver, Fugard transcends his previous understanding of white guilt and changes the method of presentation. He realized that by merely acquiring a sense of guilt and ethical repentance, one cannot reconcile with the social reality. Due to the changes of the times, Fugard chooses the form of epic theatre to arouse the audience to explore the truth behind the phenomenon that the plight of black people has not been changed, thus urging the audience to reconsider the causes of the tragedy in the plight of neoliberalism and seeking a new path of racial reconciliation.
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Key words:
- Athol Fugard /
- The Train Driver /
- white guilt /
- epic theatre /
- alienation /
- truth and reconciliation
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