＂Strike Their Roots into Unaccustomed Earth＂ in an Era of New Genetics: Diasporic Identity Politics and Genealogy Re-Considered in Jhumpa Lahiri's ＂Unaccustomed Earth＂

於後基因年代「扎根入陌生的土地」：鐘芭．拉希莉《陌生的土地》中離散認同與系譜學再探討

10.6271/fd.2016.25.2.02

郭欣茹(Hsin-Ju Kuo)

鍾芭．拉希莉 ； 《陌生的土地》 ； 認同政治 ； 親族關係 ； 新自由主義 ； Jhumpa Lahiri ； ＂Unaccustomed Earth ； ＂identity politics ； kinship ； neo-liberalism

小說與戲劇

25卷2期（2016 / 06 / 01）

25 - 58

英文

「認同」一直是近來社會及人文科學學門中重要的研究議題之一，人類「認同」之形成可概分為兩組呈現二元對立之理論陣營—分別是代表先天本質性之生物決定論以及後天形塑之社會建構論。因二戰後之歷史因素以及自1970年代後結構主義思潮的崛起，不同範疇如性別、文化、國族、族裔等認同議題趨近以社會建構論來理解與詮釋。然而2003年人類基因體計畫（Human Genome Project）達成，基因溯源之可行性再次掀起一番種族、國族與認同是否為先天本質論抑或後天建構論之倫理思辯。而值此跨國流動頻繁、地理疆界消融的時代，跨國移民論述之族裔與文化認同之議題本就極具深度與挑戰，加上後基因科技之時代氛圍對於此一論述脈絡亦深化其複雜性。本研究試圖探究，在此情境下移民文學所呈現的差異政治，辯證出何種「同」與「異」之身分認同文化景觀。本文以南亞女作家鐘芭．拉希莉短篇小說作品《陌生的土地》作為批判式解讀之文本，剖析後基因時代生物主義之崛起對於形塑族裔認同產生之影響、探討何以移民情境下之族裔認同無法全然由社會建構論般樂觀解釋之，以及少數族裔移民之認同呈現被迫種族化（racialized）之現象。其次，以文本不斷反覆出現之「園藝」（horticulture）植物移植意象作為母題，移民離鄉去國與異地落地生根之軌跡及家族系譜之延續等，扣合親族血脈傳承與移民子女文化認同之間交互關係的探究。最後，由主角以身處美國新自由主義氛圍當道，以自身離散經驗所演繹出之抗拒父系轉而認同母系系譜之主體性。

Views of identity formation are roughly divided into two competing camps, based on the concepts of ＂biological determination＂ (also known as biologism) and ＂social constructionism,＂ and the debate over the key meaning of human behavior and self-identity can be seen as paralleling the split between materialism and idealism. However, the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, which revealed much in terms of our biological ancestry, has also raised ethical dilemmas and questions with regard to the nature of race and self-identity. Given the emerging ascendancy of bio-genetic accounts of human life, the conceptualization of individualized identity has re-energized old debates about sameness and difference in identity origination mechanisms, and even led to a rise in racialized politics. This issue is even more pivotal and controversial in today's era of increasing transnationalism, as the impact of genomics on mapping human genealogy has raised the issue of whether racial identity or ethnicity denotes any biological reality. This paper will analyze the Bengali American writer Jhumpa Lahiri's short story ＂Unaccustomed Earth,＂ exploring the interweaving notions ofrace, kinship and family genealogy to create a more sophisticated understanding of the tangled, heterogeneous process of identity formation embedded in the South Asian diaspora. To further inquire into the full view of racialized politics in Lahiri's immigrant writing, the following analysis focuses on how horticulturality is associated with the ideas of genealogy and kinship that delineate the saga of a South Asian immigrant family, and on the re-examination of father- and motherdaughter relationships through the lens of neoliberalism, as the links that enable the continuity of family genealogy.

1. Fuh, Shyh-Jen(2012).'New Face of America'? The Problem of Race and the Identity Crisis in Roley's 'American Son'.NTU Studies in Language and Literature,28,33-58.
   連結：
2. Bush, George W. "State of the Union Address, January 20, 2004." Web. 5 Jul.2015.
3. Shelby, Richard C."The Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act of 1996." April 15, 25, and 29, 1996. General Debate. Web. 5 Jul. 2015.
4. Anderson, Benedict(1991).Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism.New York:Verso.
5. Anderson, Wanni W.(Ed.),Lee, Robert G.(Ed.)(2005).Displacements and Diasporas: Asians in the Americas.New Brunswick, NJ:Rutgers UP.
6. Brodhead, Richard H.(1986).The School of Hawthorne.New York:Oxford UP.
7. Clifford, James(1997).Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century.Cambridge, MA:Harvard UP.
8. Cohen, Henri(Ed.),Lefebvre, Claire(Ed.)(2005).Categorization in Cognitive Science.Amsterdam:Elsevier.
9. Cohen, Robin(1997).Global Diasporas.Seattle:U of Washington P.
10. Comaroff, John L.(1995).Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Politics of Difference in an Age of Revolution.International Studies in Global Change,7,243-76.
11. Cullen, Jim(2003).The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation.New York:Oxford UP.
12. Davis, Dana-Ain(2007).Narrating the Mute: Racializing and Racism in a Neoliberal Moment.Souls,9(4),346-60.
13. Derrida, Jacques,Kamuf, Peggy(Trans.)(2006).Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning and the New International.New York:Routledge.
14. Dimock, Wai Chee(2006).Through Other Continents: American Literature across Deep Time.Princeton:Princeton UP.
15. Ellerbeck, Erin(2011).Adoption and the Language of Horticulture in All's Well That Ends Well.SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900,51(2),305-26.
16. Gerken, Christina(2008).Neo-Liberalism and Family Values in 1990s Immigration Reform Discourse.disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory,17(1),45-71.
17. Gibbon, Sahra(Ed.),Novas, Carlos(Ed.)(2008).Biosocialities, Genetics and the Social Sciences: Making Biologies and Identities.London:Routledge.
18. Gilroy, Paul(2000).Against Race: Imagining Political Culture Beyond the Color Line.Cambridge, MA:Harvard UP.
19. Inda, Jonathan Xavier(Ed.)(2005).Anthropologies of Modernity: Foucault, Governmentality, and Life Politics.Malden:Blackwell.
20. Koshy, Susan(2013).Neoliberal Family Matters.American Literary History,25(2),344-80.
21. Lahiri, Jhumpa(2008).Unaccustomed Earth.New York:Alfred A. Knopf.
22. Machery, Edouard,Faucher, Luc(2005).Social Construction and the Concept of Race.Philosophy of Science,72(5),1208-19.
23. Omi, Michael,Winant, Howard(2014).Racial Formation in the United States.New York:Routledge.
24. Rushdie, Salman(1992).Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991.London:Granta.
25. Rutherford, J.(Ed.)(1990).Identity: Community, Culture, Difference.London:Lawrence and Wishart.
26. Safran, William(1991).Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return.Diaspora,1(1),83-99.
27. Schramm, Katharina,Skinner, David,Rottenburg, Richard(2012).Identity Politics and the New Genetics: Re/Creating Categories of Difference and Belonging.New York:Berghahn.
28. Smaje, Chris(1997).Not Just a Social Construct: Theorising Race and Ethnicity.Sociology,31(2),307-27.
29. Thapan, Meenakshi(Ed.)(2005).Transnational Migration and the Politics of Identity.London:Sage.
30. Wong, Sau-ling C.(1995).Denationalization Reconsidered: Asian American Cultural Criticism at a Theoretical Crossroads.Amerasia Journal,21(1-2),1-27.