接合差異：庫雷西後殖民故事中的晚期資本主義文化邏輯

Abstract

庫雷西的早期後殖民故事—《我的美麗洗衣店》、《郊區佛陀》、《黑色唱片》、《山米與蘿西上床》—同時也呈現了晚期資本主義的各個面向。這是因為在這些作品中，非白人的角色參與了二十世紀七、八零年代倫敦的文化生產與消費，證實了擁有文化資本的邊緣主體也能在不友善的英國社會中找到自己的位置。接合差異讓這樣的立足方式成為可能，因為晚期資本主義不但鼓勵族裔的差異被「表達」，也歡迎有族裔身份的個人和不同的社會團體互相「連結」，其中包含了作為東道主的英國白人社群。 本論文的序論依序討論庫雷西對於資本主義的曖昧態度、評論家對於庫雷西故事中多元議題的探討、作為晚期資本主義邏輯的文化的商品化與商品的文化化、這四個故事中讓後殖民性與晚期資本主義扣連的（文化）差異的接合。第一章以《我的美麗洗衣店》中的次文化成員、亞裔企業、主流生產模式的接合來例示晚期資本主義的霸權。這個霸權確認了大英帝國光輝的消褪，以及一個新的資本主義的帝國的興起。第二章強調表演在《郊區佛陀》中的重要。這是一種讓不同階級與族裔主體展現其文化資本，並在特定的文化生產場域中相互串連的方式。第三章論述《黑色唱片》中消費主義與回教基本教義派的對立。這兩種立場的相互頡抗，促成與轉變八零年代晚期英國的各種認同。藉著小說主角在文學上的努力，庫雷西找到了逃離無深度消費主義，以及令人窒息的回教基本教義派教條的途徑。第四章分析藉著解離與反對他者，接合差異的過程在《山米與蘿西上床》所產生的排他行為。這些鬥爭在不同權力地位的主體爭奪空間時最為明顯。結論檢視了庫雷西強調接合差異是晚期資本主義中的生存策略，以及他批判接合差異過程中，意圖接合的主體忽視他者與自我間的差異性與同一性。作者認為這種忽視會造成人們和世界的複雜性相脫節。Hanif Kureishi’s early postcolonial stories: My Beautiful Laundrette, The Buddha of Suburbia, The Black Album, and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid are also works concerning different facets of late capitalism. This is because non-white characters in these works are involved in different roles of cultural production or consumption in the ‘70s and ‘80s Britain, attesting the emergence of marginal subjects with cultural capitals to win them a place in an unfriendly host society. What makes this possible is a process of articulating differences, when in a late capitalist era, their differences of ethnicity are encouraged to be pronounced and hinged with different social formations, including the host community.

The introduction of this dissertation concerns Kureishi’s ambiguous stance toward capitalism, critics’ co-presence of different issues in Kureishi’s stories, the commodification of culture and culturalization of commodities as the cultural logic of late capitalism, and finally, articulation of (cultural) differences in Kureishi’s four major stories where postcoloniality inevitably hinges late capitalism. Chapter One explores a late capitalist hegemony exemplified by an articulation of a subculturalist, an Asian enterprise, and the mainstream mode of production in My Beautiful Laundrette. This hegemony also confirms fade-out of Britain’s imperial glory and the rise of a new capitalist empire. Chapter Two highlights the idea of performance in The Buddha of Suburbia. It is a way by which individuals of different class and ethnicity enounce their cultural capitals and hook together in certain fields of cultural production. The major concern of Chapter Three lies in the antagonism between consumerism and Islamic fundamentalism in The Black Album, around which identities in the late eighties Britain are shaped and transformed. Through the hero’s literary endeavors, Kureishi seeks a way out of consumerist depthlessness and suffocating doctrines of a fundamentalist Islam. Focusing on Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, Chapter Four analyzes exclusory practices that can occur when different elements are articulated together by disarticulating or opposing those labeled as others. These struggles are manifest in spatial contestation between different characters in different power positions. The concluding chapter examines both Kureishi’s emphasis of articulating difference as a survival strategy in late capitalism, and his critical stance in his stories on ignoring others’ differences from and similarities with oneself, which, as the author believes, is a human tendency that disarticulates people from the complexity of the world.