Black Justice: Walter Mosley's History Writing/Righting Project in Little Scarlet

10.29716/TKSFLL.201412_(24).0001

錢欽昭(Chin-Jau Chyan)

瓦特墨斯理 ； 《小紅》 ； 華茲種族暴動 ； 黑人偵探 ； 私探小說傳統 ； 暴力 ； Walter Mosley ； Little Scarlet ； Watts race riots ； black detective ； private eye tradition ； violence

淡江外語論叢

24期（2014 / 12 / 01）

1 - 22

英文

本論文旨在探討犯罪小說作者瓦特墨斯理在其作品《小紅》中如何處理種族正義的議題。墨斯理挪用白人私探小說敘事傳統，取回發言權，不但瓦解白人的凝視，亦重新聚焦種族他者的歷史與生活經驗。偵探主角置身洛杉磯華茲暴動歷史事件中，試圖尋找暴動的原因，也紀錄一段被主流社會忽略的歷史。暴動的受害者小紅無法再為自己發聲，但是偵探不斷努力重建她的生命與故事。換言之，墨斯理重新書寫了一段豐富多彩的洛杉磯黑人歷史，也為美國社會紛擾的種族關係提供洞見與未來方向。

This paper aims to examine how Walter Mosley deals with racial justice in his crime novel, Little Scarlet. In appropriating the language of a racially problematic genre and reclaiming the ＂fictional I,＂ Mosley makes his protagonist disrupt the white gaze and calls attention to the existence and experience of the racial other, which has been excluded from and rendered demonic in mainstream American society. Situating his hero in the historical Watts race riots, Mosley tries to look for answers to the destructive violence and chronicles a different version of the history. Little Scarlet, the murder victim, is unable to speak for herself, but she is never absent in the narrative. Mosley' fictional investigation into the riots not only reconstructs a rich and complex history of black L.A. but also helps shed light on race relations in America.

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