【作者】 罗良功；

【导师】 聂珍钊；

【作者基本信息】 华中师范大学 ， 比较文学与世界文学， 2008， 博士

【摘要】 本文主要从艺术与政治互动关系的视角探讨美国黑人作家兰斯顿·休斯的诗歌。休斯在长达四十余年的文学生涯中表现出了持久的强烈的政治意识,其政治意识的核心价值观表现在两个层次,即种族自由平等的民主理想和人类友善和谐的道德理想。在这种持久的政治意识的驱动下,休斯在不同的时期从不同的角度孜孜不倦地探寻实现理想的道路、去丰富理想的内涵。他从种族伦理关系出发,根据不同的社会政治形势不断调整、扩展着社会视角,将阶级关系的视角、文化视角、性属/种族问题视角、道德视角等多重角度去探寻通向理想之路。在这一过程中,他关于种族平等自由理想的内涵也在不断拓展和深化,强调的侧重点也不时调整,时而强调具体可行的理想层面,时而强调抽象远大的目标。休斯的政治理想内涵的拓展和侧重点的变化,以及他关注社会的视角变化都直接反映在诗歌之中,不仅影响了休斯诗歌的主题、题材、艺术视角,而且影响着诗歌的艺术形式。另一方面,诗歌艺术并不只是休斯传达政治的工具,而且在外部政治压力过大时成为休斯政治意识的一部分。由此,政治与艺术之间形成一种互渗互补的关系。本文将具体从休斯在不同时期的政治观与艺术观、主题、艺术题材与视角、艺术表现手段之间的关系来探讨政治与艺术的互动关系。鉴于休斯的诗歌在不同的文学时期表现出较为明显的差异性,以及他的政治意识与诗歌艺术之间的关系呈现的不同形态,本文将休斯的诗歌创作生涯分为四个时期进行探讨:哈莱姆文艺复兴时期、30年代的激进时期、40年代二战期间和冷战时期最初几年、麦卡锡主义之后的50-60年代。这种时间划分大体兼顾了美国的社会和政治背景和休斯自身的政治意识与艺术特点,便于两者相互参照。本文由六个部分组成。前言:简要介绍休斯在美国黑人文学和整个美国文学中的地位,回顾休斯的文学生涯及其政治意识的大致轨迹;粗略梳理国内外休斯研究的历史发展与现状,指出本文研究的意义和研究方向;提出本文研究的思路、方法。第一章主要探讨哈莱姆文艺复兴时期休斯诗歌体现出来的政治与艺术互动关系。文章认为。休斯在这一阶段的政治意识突出地表现为英雄主义的种族意识,即毫不羞怯地认同黑人种族身份、毫不畏缩地追求美国民族身份、宽容乐观地表达种族自由平等的民主信念。这种英雄主义的种族意识塑造了休斯在这一时期狂放不羁的唯美主义种族艺术观,即黑人艺术家应该勇于从黑人民族的生活中发现美、毫不羞涩地表现民族的真实的美,以此反抗殖民主义文化对美国黑人民族形象的贬损,还原黑人民族的真实形象。在探寻黑人的美和民族真实的生活的过程中,休斯的艺术视角发生了三种转变,即空间维度上由外而内的转变、时间维度上由历史想象到现实关注的转变、精神维度上由主观向主客一体的转变,这种转变反映了休斯的逐渐转向客观视角。休斯强烈的种族意识和社会责任感还从根本上决定了20年代诗歌的基本艺术特征,即诗歌艺术成为他强烈的和社会责任感的载体。他的诗歌艺术通过对惠特曼诗歌传统的接受与黑人文化元素的融合,既体现了时代特征和诗人个性,又体现了种族政治与艺术实践的互动与融合,形成一种波西米亚式的种族书写特征。第二章则主要讨论休斯在30年代激进左倾年代的诗歌艺术与政治之间的互动关系。休斯在30年代对马克思主义的接受使他能够从阶级层面、世界层面来理解和思考种族问题,从而使他的种族思想和社会观更加深广和激进。这种激进的左倾思想和全新的社会观渗透了休斯30年代诗歌的内在精神和外在形式,不仅改变了休斯诗歌原有的艺术视角和主题,而且促使休斯在诗歌艺术方面作出了新的探索。这一时期宣传激进的暴力革命思想成为休斯诗歌的主题,诗歌显示出极为明显的政治宣传意图、激进的政治意识和直白的思想表达方式。同时,他也力求吸收和运用大众文化的、精英文化的艺术手段来进行政治表达,30年代中后期的人民阵线美学为休斯的诗歌艺术提供了新的契机,在这一基础上,他开始重新调整政治与艺术的关系。他的人民阵线诗歌对后期的诗歌艺术创作和政治表达形式产生了持久的影响。第三章主要讨论30年代末期至50年代初期休斯诗歌的政治与艺术的关系。这一时期跨越了二战和冷战前期,种族仍然是诗歌关注的核心对象,但是激进直白的革命声音已经被一种温和而躲闪的声音代替,表现出他政治意识上的矛盾性。他在30年代末期到50年代初期创作的诗歌,诗歌的艺术视角再次回到现实生活本身,因此他在艺术中把现实生活细节作为传达意义的载体,注重对现实生活进行艺术阐释。诗歌艺术视角向现实的回归是一种疏离30年代激进政治的体现,也是自30年代末期以来美国日趋紧张的政治环境压抑的结果。通过强调对现实生活的表现和阐释,休斯的政治意图和政治理想更加隐含地表现出来,诗歌中的政治话语成分从显性走向隐性,而艺术话语由弱到强,这样既躲避了严格的政治审查,同时也增强了诗歌的艺术性。黑人方言、民间文化和大众文化形式再一次渗透到诗歌的表层结构上来,人民阵线美学持续影响着他的诗歌,最终形成了一种大众现代主义诗歌艺术形式。第四章重点分析在麦卡锡时期之后的50-60年代,休斯诗歌在政治与艺术之间的新的对话。在40年代末期到50年代初期,经历了以麦卡锡主义为极端代表的美国冷战政治思维的严酷压制和40年代以来美国黑人问题上的些许进步之后,休斯逐渐认识到美国社会有瑕疵但可以挽救,因而对美国黑人问题抱有更加乐观的态度。此后,休斯更加强调种族之间的和谐,认为黑人争取民主自由的斗争应该采取有利于和谐的手段。具体而言,他主张以两种手段来实现种族之间的和谐和平等:一是在道德和理性的约束下对社会进行批评,即休斯强调的“幽默”手段,一是以自己踏实的工作赢得社会认同。在这一意义上,休斯在50—60年代时期的社会理想表现得最为温和、实际。在这一时期,休斯的诗歌更注重描写黑人的正面形象,描写黑人的精神面貌。休斯诗歌任务的重心转向记录,而不是宣传或鼓动。他在诗歌艺术形式上也有与时俱进的发展,将惠特曼的大众现代主义艺术与大众文化和民间文化结合,形成一种大众主义先锋诗歌,既表现了他在这一时期的平和实用的政治理想,又使他备受时代和环境压抑的政治意识得到补偿,形成了艺术与政治之间既互动又互补的关系。结语对全文讨论的观点做了总结,全盘梳理了休斯在不同时期在政治与艺术关系上所做的探索和实验,认为休斯通过毕生的诗学实验展示了一种艺术领先政治的政治诗学,同时简要论述了休斯的诗歌在艺术与政治互动中形成的独特的美学品质,即大众主义的先锋艺术、黑人文化特色的表意模式、真实。更多还原

【Abstract】 This dissertation explores the interplay of politics and artistry embodied in the poetry of Langston Hughes, the great African American poet in the 20^th century. In his over-40-year literary career, Hughes carries a strong and lasting political consciousness, the core value of which consists of two aspects, the democratic ideal of racial freedom and equality, and the moral ideal of harmony and friendliness among all human beings. In his pursuit of this ideals, Hughes employs various viewpoints from the racial ethical to the class, the cultural, the gender/racial, and to the moral. These viewpoints help enrich the content of his ideals, with emphasis sometimes on the loftiness of the ideas and sometimes on the practical aspects. All this is reflected in Hughes’s poetry from the theme to the subject matters and the artistic points of view. Also the artistic form of Hughes’s poetry is influenced deeply. Furthermore, in case Hughes is exposed to political threats out of the social reality, the artistic form serves as a second voice of his political ideas. Thus this dissertation will focus on the relationships between Hughes’s political consciousness and the theme, the subject matters, the artistic point of view, and the artistic form to explore the interplay between politics and art.Considering the obvious difference in Hughes’s poetry in different periods and considering the different modes of the relationship between politics and art in different decades, this dissertation will make exploration by dividing Hughes’s literary career into four periods: Harlem Renaissance period, the radical 1930s, the 1940s form the WWII to the first years of the Cold War, and the 1950s-1960s after McCarthyism. This dissertation is composed of 6 parts:The Introduction part gives a brief introduction to the literary role of Langston Hughes in African American Literature and American Literature. A short biography is also offered to Hughes to show how his political consciousness was formed and developed. A literature review is made to show the historical development and the status quo of Langston Hughes study in both abroad and in China, based on which the major task, plan, methods and significance of this dissertation are presented.Chapter I makes a n exploration to the relationship between politics and art embodied in Hughes’s poetry of Harlem Renaissance period. Hughes demonstrates a heroic style racial consciousness—shameless reaffirmation of the racial identity, fearless pursuit of the national identity of the USA, and tolerant and optimistic ideal of racial freedom and equality. This heroic consciousness helps shape the bohemian aesthetic view of Hughes in this period. According it, Hughes believes a negro artist should be brave enough to discover and express the beauty of American black people in order to show rebellion against racialism which has been twisting and dwarfing the image of the black people. His artistic points of view show a change in this period from the outside to the inside, from the subjective to the subjective/objective, and from historical imagination to his concern with reality. This change shows that Hughes is turning to an objective point of view in view of catching the objective and real beauty of the race and the status quo. Hughes’s social consciousness also determines the basic artistic features of his poetry, which serve as the efficient vehicle of his political consciousness. By assimilating Whitmanese tradition and cultural elements of African American people, Hughes develops a bohemian writing feature in his poetry.Chapter II places its emphasis on the relationship between politics and art in the 1930s poetry of Hughes. In this period, Hughes makes a sharp turn to the leftism and radical socialism, which allows him to understand the social reality from the standing point of the class and the world. These radical points of view are reflected in Hughes’s social ideas and racial consciousness, and thus penetrate in the spirit and the artistic form of his poetry, which helps make his artistic viewpoints and themes of poetry awry from those of 1920s. Political propaganda becomes the overwhelming task of his poetry which costs the artistry to a great extent. But by the influence of the Popular Front aesthetics, Hughes readjusts the relationship between politics and art. His Popular Front poetry has a far-reaching influence upon his poetic art and political expression in the following decades.Chapter III makes an exploration to the interaction between art and politics in Hughes’s poetry created from late 1930s to early 1950s. This period, witnessing the end of the WWII and the first years of the Cold War, sees Hughes still grasping his serious concern on his race, except that his voice becomes sly and gentle instead of radical as in 1930s, which shows Hughes in a great confusion and contradiction politically. In this period, Hughes returns to the realistic standing point by employing everyday life as the vehicle of his political consciousness with emphasis on the illustration of the real life. This reflects his repudiation of his radical 1930s and also a result of the more and more tense atmosphere of American politics. Hughes conveys his political ideas in a more implicit way with the formerly explicit political discourse becoming muted while the artistic discourse getting from weak to strong. This helps Hughes avoid the strict political scrutiny while enhancing the craftsmanship of his poetry. Black vernacular, folk culture and popular culture again come up to the surface of his artistic structure. With the continuing influence of the Popular Front aesthetics, Hughes gradually develops his popularist modernist artistic feature.Chapter IV focuses on the analysis of the interplay between politics and art in Hughes’s 1950s-1960s poetry. In this period, Hughes comes to understand, after the suppression of McCarthyism and slight progress in African American people’s freedom cause, that America is defected but is redeemable. This makes him optimistic about the future of America and its democratic dream. Hughes shows a greater emphasis on racial harmony. He believes that all means to be taken to realize democracy should be in compliance with the goal of harmony. And he strongly believes that humor and practical work of the black people will help themselves to be accepted. Thus he devotes himself to the depiction of the positive image of the black people based on the art-for-recording poetics. The altering of acceptable artistic form and radical poetic form, as shown in Ask Your Mama, demonstrates Hughes’s philosophy for struggle for democracy in this period. The focus of his poetry is on recording instead of propaganda. In terms of poetic art, he makes innovations by following the cultural traits of his times. By combining Whitmanian popularist modernism with popular culture and folk culture, he created a genre of popularist avant-garde poetry. This genre helps to express his mild and pragmatic political ideals, and at the same time contributes to a compensation for his political consciousness oppressed by the Cold War era American political culture, which forms an interactive and mutually compensatory relationship between art and politics.The Conclusion part makes a summary of the ideas discussed in the previous parts, and believes that Hughes, by his life-time experiments, draws a art-first political poetics. This part also makes a brief analysis of the aesthetic features—popularist avant-garde poetry, expressive modes of African American culture, and truism—as the result of Hughes experiments and exploration in the interplay between art and politics.更多还原