製造歷史：非裔美國劇場史的反思

Making History: Rethinking African American Theatre Historiography

10.6258/bcla.2005.62.02

Harry J. Elam, Jr.

非裔美國劇場 ； 劇場史 ； 藍斯頓休斯 ； 黑白混血 ； 黑人藝術活動 ； African American theater ； historiography ； Langston Hughes ； Mulatto ； Black Arts Movement

臺大文史哲學報

62期（2005 / 05 / 01）

3 - 21

繁體中文

本篇論文旨在檢視戲劇史學的概念，特別是關於美國非裔劇場的戲劇史學。我將訴諸批評的歷史主義，於論述過程中，達鑑古審今之功。本文著重探討「表演」於今昔美國非裔文化傳統裡所扮演的角色。美國非裔表演史，於過去非裔爭自由的社會、文化與政治抗爭史中已屢被述及。除此之外，本文以演出為例證，說明美籍非裔能夠製作其歷史，且確已進行之；此等演出，適足以為其陶鑄自身歷史所用。本篇論文將深入闡明，重探美國非裔表演史之緣由，並非僅為發掘已亡佚或尚未被指認的史實。同時，更將進一步說明，歷史遞嬗乃想像創造的過程；歷史不僅僅是發現，而是製作。準此，戲劇史學家肩負的使命，係為想像創造的考古學，既致力揭發過去，更實際參與其於今日之建構。

This paper examines the notion of historiography in particular African American theatre historiography and calls for a critical historicism, a process that recognizes the need to interrogate the past in order to inform the present. The paper examines the particular role that performance plays and has played within African American culture and tradition. The history of African American performance is always already implicated in the history of African American social, cultural, and political struggles for freedom. In addition, through performance, this paper suggests that African Americans can and do make history and these performances constitute history in themselves. This essay pushes further by suggesting that not only to the need for historical recovery of an African America n performance history that has been lost or previously unrecognized. Rather the essay suggests the process of history can be one of imaginative creation, that history is not simply found but made. What this entails for the theatre historian is a commitment to an imaginative archeology where one endeavors not only to uncover the past but also actually participates in its construction in the present.

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