阿索尔·富加德《火车司机》中的白人罪感与史诗剧元素.pdf

International Comparative LiteratureVol.6 NO.1（2023）：111-133DOI：10.19857/ki.ICL.20236106Copyright Shanghai Normal UniversityWhite Guilt and Epic Theatre Elements in Fugard s The Train Driver*阿索尔 富加德 火车司机 中的白人罪感与史诗剧元素木羽北京外国语大学MU YuBeijing Foreign Studies Universitym_Abstract：Athol Fugard is a well-known contemporary liberalist playwright in South Africa.His one-act play，The Train Driver，is a story about the guilt of a white train driver who accidentally hit a black woman who was committing suicide and his journey of searching the woman s tomb at a graveyard in the charge of a black gravedigger.The Train Driver is Fugard s most important piece in the post-apartheid era.It presents liberal whites sense of guilt，which is the ethical condition that whites cannot escape their conscience in face of the social injustices of apartheid，and continues the artistic expression of reaching reconciliation with reality through moral repentance.It also takes the form of Bertolt Brecht s“Epic Theatre”to reveal the historical predicament in New South Africa after the end of apartheid and then examines white guilt in the neoliberal context.This article focuses on form analysis，which is the“Epic Theatre”elements in The Train Driver.It tries to explain the change in Fugard s perception of white guilt in the post-apartheid era and why he chooses to take the form of an epic theatre to present it.The article shows how the monologue in The Train Driver presents white guilt，and then analyzes the setting of the dialogue，the prologue and epilogue and the alienation effect they create to prevent the audience from identifying with the white man and his guilt.Then，it further indicates the neoliberal issues involved in stage designs，such as the background of the cemetery，the dilapidated dwelling of the black gravedigger，and the sound effects，to demonstrate that the alienation effect of the theatrical form can arouse the audience to think rationally that the death of a black woman is not the fault of the white driver，but the result of the complex neoliberal reality.In this case，the white train driver still blindly bears the guilt，rather than *Submitted Date：Jan.1，2023；Accepted Date：Mar.14，2023.2023年第6卷 第1期国际比较文学国际比较文学INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE LITERATURElooking into the roots of the tragedy.The article reveals that，in The Train Driver，Fugard transcends his previous understanding of white guilt and changes the method of presentation.He realized that by merely acquiring a sense of guilt and ethical repentance，one cannot reconcile with the social reality.Due to the changes of the times，Fugard chooses the form of epic theatre to arouse the audience to explore the truth behind the phenomenon that the plight of black people has not been changed，thus urging the audience to reconsider the causes of the tragedy in the plight of neoliberalism and seeking a new path of racial reconciliation.Keywords：Athol Fugard；The Train Driver；white guilt；epic theatre；alienation；truth and reconciliationNotes on the Author：MU Yu is a PhD student in the School of African Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University，majoring in South African Theatre Studies.Athol Fugard and His TheatreHarold Athol Lanigan Fugard（1932）is a South African dramatist，actor，and director who became internationally known for his profound penetration and pessimistic analyses of South African society during and after the apartheid.In 2011，Fugard received a special lifetime achievement award at the 65th annual Tony Awards.1 The committee that announced Fugard as the recipient of the award noted that“his work has always opposed racism and continues to promote the message of freedom and equality.”Fugard entered theatre in the late 1950s not long after the Nationalist government came to power and put into place the structure of apartheid，2 an oppressive and brutal system of racial discrimination.At the time，there did not appear to be any truly South African theatresones that spoke with the voices of all the country s people.3 As a white South African with a liberal conscience，Fugard had to shoulder his full share of a sense of responsibility for what was happening in the country.He gave portraits of life in Sophiatown through his observations in his apprenticeship play No-Good Friday（1958）and Nongogo（1959）.In 1960s，Fugard spent a lot of time in Port Elizabeth，4 once a dynamic place with a variety of races，cultures，and religions.But the National Party government started to implement a plan of residential segregation，5 and Port Elizabeth underwent a major resettlement of population and physical replanning of its city structure.Fugard s“Family Trilogy”（Blood Knot，Hello and Goodbye and People are Living There）and Boesman and Lena captured the change of population.Under the Population Registration Act of 1950，the population of Port Elizabeth was 1“Athol Fugard to Receive Lifetime Tony Award.”2 Donald Ellis,“Apartheid,”Israel Studies 24,no.4(2019):63.3 Sheila Fugard,“The Apprenticeship Years-Athol Fugard Issue,”Twentieth Century Literature 39,no.4(1993):394-95.4 Athol Fugard,Notebooks 19601977(London:Faber and Faber,1983),80.5 A.J.Christopher,“Apartheid Planning in South Africa:The Case of Port Elizabeth,”The Geographical Journal 153,no.2(1987):203.112阿索尔 富加德 火车司机 中的白人罪感与史诗剧元素White Guilt and Epic Theatre Elements in Fugard s The Train Driver2023,Vol.6,No.1then divided into Whites，Indians，Chinese，Blacks and Colored.6 The last two kinds were mainly housed in the urban periphery，New Brighton and Korsten，where Blood Knot took place.Black individuals were obliged to possess passbooks and identification papers，and were otherwise confined to designated zones known as“homelands”or“townships，”which lacked suitable housing and amenities.The colored couple in Boesman and Lena were marginalized and expropriated by this unjust law.Apart from witnessing the misery of the oppressed，Fugard also worked to create and sustain theatre groups throughout the 1960s and 1970s.Despite South African drama s particular vulnerability to censorship and the deliberate persecution of black artists，Fugard and his collaborators produced plays defiantly indicating the country s apartheid policy.The most prominent period was his collaboration with about six black amateurs.They created the Serpent Players to experiment with“improvised theatre”in the 1960s by first importing Italian Commedia dellArte.7 Later，avant-garde experiments of“Pure Theatre Experience，”8 improvisation and Brecht s epic theatre became the Serpent Players tasks for performance.In the process of improvisation，Fugard encouraged his actors to imagine and perform what would happen next.9 From this technique derived the imaginative，collective，and shapeless drama Orestes，a combination of Greek myth and South African reality，and the documentary“Political Trilogy”：Sizwe Bansi is Dead，The Island，and Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act.Theatrically sparse，with small casts and little reliance on elaborate sets，costumes，or props，Fugard s interpretation of his world，his use of low-cost“poor theatre”and political“epic theatre”for its maximum effect，and his dedication to his actors，both black and white，have earned for him critical respect accorded few modern playwrights.After the world tour of Statement，Fugard gave up improvisational and collective experiments in his sloppy moments.10 Then he moved toward a much more personal and traditionally structured play，Dimetos（1977）.As a liberal artist in South Africa，censorship was not Fugard s only problem.The chaos of the political environment and crises in his theatrical practice forced him to escape to America for a new start where he expressed more personal issues.The sense of guilt has long been the theme and motivation of Athol Fugard s theatre，especially in autobiographical pieces such as A Lesson from Aloes，about liberal guilt as a member of the privileged white classes of the country and“Master Harold”and the Boys，telling of a pang of guilt for wrongdoing towards his black friend.Those plays were performed to much acclaim in London and New York City.So was The Road to Mecca（1985），the story of an eccentric older woman about to be confined against her will in a nursing home.6 A.J.Christopher et al.,“Segregation and Cemeteries in Port Elizabeth,”South Africa 161,no.1(1995):41.7 Athol Fugard,Notebooks 19601977,92.8 Athol Fugard,Statement(New York:Theatre Communications Group,1986),v.9 Athol Fugard,Statement,vi.10 Athol Fugard,Notebooks 19601977,214.1132023年第6卷 第1期国际比较文学国际比较文学INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE LITERATUREThen，during the dismantling of the apartheid from 1989 to 1994，Fugard came back to South Africa to echo the liberal and democratic trend in My Children！My Africa！（1989），Playland（1992）and Valley Song（1996）.South Africa s apartheid regime unofficially ended with the release of Nelson Mandela in February 1990.Then，in 1992，a year which saw the breakdown of negotiations among the parties to the transition and increasing violence on the ground in South Africa.The Truth and Reconciliation Commission（TRC）promoted a transition from apartheid to a new age by focusing on apartheid victims and perpetrators and articulating future aspirations.Fugard then established a mode of“forgiveness and reconciliation”in the play of confession，Playland，which takes place from the last day of 1989 to the first day of 1990.The resolution of Playland“identifies it as a play which attempts a leap of faith over the crisis ideology and into the promise of a negotiated and happy-ended future.”11In the end of twentieth century，Fugard turned inward to explore his memory as the process of self-questioning his life journey and guilt.12 He published a memoir，Cousin（1994），and a play，The Captains Tiger：A Memoir for the Stage（1997），that has strong autobiographical elements.So did other plays of his since the beginning of the twenty-first century：Exits and Entrances（2001），a record of the early-stage life of the great playwright，and Sorrows and Rejoicings（2002），which is about a poet who returns to South Africa after years of exile.The new South Africa had entered into neo-liberal era and become a liberal democracy after the apartheid.But the black population did not have the access to a bright future.Due to high unemployment rates，they lived hand to mouth through a variety of activities like street vending，day labor，odd jobs，recycling，and underground markets for drugs，sex，weapons，and stolen goods.13 Fugard roots his work in his country s cruel reality：black unemployment in Victory，the HIV problem in Coming Home，the missing immigrant issue in Have You Seen Us？（2009）and poverty in The Train Driver，which is also a piece of meditation on white South Africans collective guilt about apartheid and a culmination of personal guilt since Blood Knot.The Train DriverThe Train Driver is a succinct two-man play in ninety minutes.On the surface，it appears to be an introspection of the train driver and his inner demons，who appears at an unmarked graveyard on the outskirts of an undeveloped village in the middle of nowhere.Gradually，watching the two men at work on stage，a world of make-believe and contradictory tension comes alive，raising issues about post-apartheid white guilt and black poverty under 11 C.Maree,“Truth and Reconciliation:Confronting the Past in Death and the Maiden(Ariel Dorfman)and Playland(Athol Fugard),”Literator 16,no.2(1995):27.12 Dennis Walder,“The Fitful Muse:Fugard s Plays of Memory,”The European Legacy 6,no.7(2002):697.13 Andy Clarno,Neoliberal Apartheid:Palestine/Israel and South Africa after 1994(Chicago:University of Chicago Press,2017),34.114阿索尔 富加德 火车司机 中的白人罪感与史诗剧元素White Guilt and Epic Theatre Elements in Fugard s The Train Driver2023,Vol.6,No.1neoliberalism.The Train Driver is Fugard s most important piece in the post-apartheid era.It presents liberal whites sense of guilt，which is the ethical condition that whites cannot escape their conscience in face of the social injustices of apartheid，and continues the artistic expression of reaching reconciliation with reality through moral repentance.It also takes the form of Bertolt Brecht s“Epic Theatre”to reveal the historical predicament in New South Africa after the end of apartheid and then examines white guilt in the neoliberal context.The Train Driver was staged in different theatres in Europe，America and South Africa from 2010 to 2018.It was also introduced in China in 2015，directed by Wencong Chen.After the premiere，the first comment appeared in Shanghai Theatre，in which Xin Ying14 praised that“like a scalpel，these works cut through social ills and go into the hearts of spectators.”From the perspective of content，reviewers who favored this play saw Fugard s great power in depicting South African reality.Charles Isherwood15 in The New York Times said the play“offers a moving portrait of a man coming to recognize the deep divisions that still plague his country and makes a modest but eloquent addition to Mr.Fugard s oeuvre.”Lesley Stone16 felt touched by this pure theatre and“the incredibly moving script and sterling performances.”It is also an important play in Fugard s career，as Terry Teachout s comments17 showed that Fugard sought to walk the most precarious of tightropes by composing artistically serious plays that closely represented the turbulent political life of his native country.Meanwhile some audiences felt tired of the monological outpouring in The Train Driver.John Clum18 watched the performance of the Signature Theatre version and was not satisfied with its theatrical forms because it was played out“in monologues，silences，and snatches of conversation between the two men.”Those who hold the same opinion said：“This is an inordinately talky play that repeats itself a lot，and as a result ends up being a tedious，drawn-out affair.”19As for theatrical genre or form，some comments noticed that The Train Driver was a piece of“the Theatre of Absurd.”Joe Dziemianowicz20 of the Daily News described the play as“easy to admire for its sensitivity，but hard to recommend for its sluggish repetitiveness，”bringing the Signature season“to a yawning conclusion.”Back Stage s Erik Haagensen21 said Fugard s play was“not his most effective”and characterizes it as“barely dramatic，too obviously symbolic，14 忻颖：阿索尔 富加德：来自非洲的世界戏剧，上海戏剧 2015年第9期，第32页。XIN Yin,“Asuo er fu jia de：lai zi feizhou de shijiexiju”(Athol Fugard:World Theatre from Africa),Shanghai Xiju(Shanghai Theatre)9(2015):32.15 Charles Isherwood,“In Tortured Empathy,a Ghost Hovers,”The New York Times,September 10,2012.16 Lesley Stone,“Theatre Review:The Train Driver Doesn t Take the Easy Track,”Daily Maverick,May 10,2018.17 Terry Teachout,“A Parable of Despair and Reconciliation,”The Wall Street Journal,September 13,2012.18 John Clum,“Athol Fugard s The Train Driver,”Clumtheatre,September 5,2012.19 Terry Morgan,“Theater Review:Athol Fugard s The Train Driver Spins its Wheels,”LAist,October 20,2012.20 Joe Dziemianowicz,“Theater Review:The Train Driver by At