Internment and Post-War Japanese American Literature: Toward a Theory of Divine Citizenship
Internment and Post-War Japanese American Literature: Toward a Theory of Divine Citizenship
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拘留与战后日裔美国文学：走向神圣公民权理论
DOI：
10.1353/mel.0.0005
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发表时间：
2009
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
J. Sokolowski
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
J. Sokolowski
第二次世界大战为美国人提供了一个为国家服务的机会，从而展示了他们的爱国主义精神。这种证明自己对国家忠诚的途径成为日裔美国男性的一把双刃剑，并从根本上影响了这一群体在战争迫使的公民身份和国家认同危机期间和之后如何设想和重新概念化他们与国家的关系。(1)尽管妇女辅助军团（WAAC）的勇敢和开创性的服务，日裔美国妇女忍受自己的性别特有的挑战，谈判日裔美国女性公民身份的新理解，不涉及为国家服兵役。两个作品-一个由日裔美国人的女人和一个日裔美国人的男人-说明本文的论点：虽然社会建构的性别意识形态决定了具体的审判和测试日裔美国人在第二次世界大战期间面临的，对日裔美国人公民身份的边缘化的反应可以被描述为我所说的“神圣的公民身份的典范。“神圣公民身份的文本表现见证了国家对其臣民犯下的错误，同时也塑造了国家与（受委屈的）公民之间的新关系-一种可能发生和解与宽恕的关系。尽管在风格、基调、叙事结构和时间框架上都有差异，但大久保峰的《公民13660》（1946年）和冈田克也的《不-不男孩》（1957年）挑战了公民身份作为一个普遍类别的默认概念。(2)这些书也可以作为测试案例，以探讨性别如何影响公民身份的形成和修改。冈田克也作品的标题暗示了公民身份行为的性别特异性，而大久保作品的标题则掩盖了国家认同下的性别，这是一种普遍化的举动，使得她对性别如何影响公民身份的关注变得不那么明显。《公民13660》从大久保在营地时开始，反映了拘留期间最重要的需求：忍受和谈判危机。在战后写作时，冈田克也可能有足够的临界距离来处理重建问题。在大久保所代表的集中营经历中，女性在性别规范方面享有一定的自由度，尽管她们在充分实现自己作为公民的身份方面仍然受到限制。(3)冈田克也的小说探讨了战后日裔美国人与国家的关系问题，并将男性面临的特殊挑战定位在男性服兵役和爱国主义的背景下。与此同时，小说将日裔美国女性视为个人成长的工具，将她们的被动和母性地位具体化，而对她们为重塑公民身份而进行的斗争关注甚少。这两本书都强调了政府行动后的生存焦虑，以及这些行动迫使日裔美国人质疑自己的身份和与国家的关系。从这个意义上说，大久保在集中营的经历和冈田克也对集中营解散后的处理提供了危机期间和危机之后公民身份重建的平行描述。作为亚裔美国人的文学作品，这些书讲述了在日裔美国人意识中隐约可见的特定历史事件。作为美国文本，它们提供了一个国家，特定种族群体和个人之间的关系是如何形成，挑战和重新配置的一瞥。最后，作为将性别问题与拘禁联系在一起的文本，这些书籍展示了一个国家与其公民之间的关系是如何由性别意识形态构成的。这最后一点回应了那些批评家--最著名的是雪莉·吉克-林里拉、辛西娅·黄秀玲和杰弗里·J·圣安娜--他们呼吁学者们考虑亚裔美国人的文本是如何将种族和性别联系起来的。(4)特别是黄和圣安娜，强调批评家需要“对亚裔美国人的性别和性行为进行历史化的批判分析”（214），以理论化美国的民族认同。…
World War II presented American men with an opportunity to serve their country and thereby demonstrate their patriotism. This avenue to proving one's national loyalty became a double-edged sword for Japanese American males and radically impacted how this group envisioned and reconceptualized their relationship to the nation during and after the crisis of citizenship and national identity forced by the war. (1) The brave and groundbreaking services of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) notwithstanding, American women of Japanese ancestry endured their own gender-specific challenges to negotiating a new understanding of Japanese American female citizenship that did not involve military service to the nation. Two works--one by a Japanese American woman and one by a Japanese American man--illustrate this essay's argument: that although socially constructed ideologies of gender determined the specific trials and tests Japanese Americans faced during World War II, responses to the marginalization of Japanese American citizenship can be characterized as exemplars of what I term "divine citizenship." Textual performances of divine citizenship bear witness to wrongs committed by the state against its subject while also modeling a renovated relationship between the state and the (wronged) citizen--a relationship in which reconciliation and forgiveness might occur. Although disparate in style, tone, narrative structure, and time frame, Mine Okubo's Citizen 13660 (1946) and John Okada's No-No Boy (1957) challenge the default notion of citizenship as a universal category. (2) These books can also serve as test cases for inquiry into how gender affects citizenship formation and revision. The title of Okada's work implies a gender specificity to the act of citizenship, while the title of Okubo's work obscures gender under national identity, a universalizing move that renders less visible her focus on how gender impacts citizenship. Begun while Okubo was in camp, Citizen 13660 reflects needs paramount during internment: to endure and negotiate the crisis. Writing post-war, Okada may have had sufficient critical distance to engage with issues of reconstruction. In the internment camp experience Okubo represents, females enjoy a latitude in gender norms, though they are still constrained in their ability to realize fully their identity as citizens. (3) Okada's novel takes up the question of the Japanese American's post-war relationship to the state and locates the particular challenges for men in a masculine context of military service and patriotism. At the same time, the novel treats female Japanese Americans as tools for personal growth, reifying their status as passive and maternal, paying little attention to their struggles to reframe citizenship. Both books underscore the existential angst that followed the government's actions and the way these actions forced Japanese Americans to question their identity and their relationship to the state. In this sense, Okubo's experience in the camps and Okada's treatment of the period after their dissolution offer parallel portrayals of citizenship reformulation during and after crisis. As works of Asian American literature, these books speak to specific historical events that loom large in Japanese American consciousness. As American texts, they offer a glimpse at how relationships among the nation, particular ethnic groups, and individuals are shaped, challenged, and reconfigured. Finally, as texts in which gender issues are linked to the internment, these books demonstrate how ties between a nation and its citizens are structured by ideologies of gender. This last point responds to those critics--most notably Shirley Geok-lin Lira, Sau-ling Cynthia Wong, and Jeffrey J. Santa Ana--who have called upon scholars to consider how Asian American texts link race and gender. (4) Wong and Santa Ana, in particular, underscore the need for critics to produce "historicized critical analyses of Asian American gender and sexuality" (214) in order to theorize American national identity. …