出版与作家生涯2019newstatesman.com编辑精选
奇玛曼达·恩戈兹·阿迪契谈成为“非洲作家”意味着什么
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on what it means to be “an African writer”
导读
这是 Adichie 谈“身为非洲作家”意味着什么的一篇访谈/随笔，核心围绕创作与公民身份、被要求做“正确”的非洲代表、以及内部人抱怨与外人凝视之间的微妙差别。对写作者来说，它提醒我们：个人经验不必为整个群体代言，而呈现人的复杂性是对抗单一叙事的关键。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
写自己熟悉的题材时，别让“这算不算代表性”的顾虑绑架选材——个人经验本身就值得写。
- 02
写一个群体时要写出其复杂性（笑声、渴望、智慧），而不只是问题清单，否则容易落入单一叙事。
- 03
留意“政治性”评价的双标：经典作品的政治被视为深刻，多元声音的政治常被指为迎合，写作时不必因此自我审查。
- 04
内部人的抱怨与外部人的概括会被不同地解读——叙述视角和作者身份会影响读者接受，落笔时值得留意。
HN 评论精选
内部人抱怨带着对复杂性的默契，外部人的概括则让人担心被单一标签定义——写作要警惕这种“局外人凝视”。
这是一段优美（且非常真实）的文字：“在尼日利亚人中间，抱怨我们的问题是门艺术。大多数对话很快就变成一连串的抱怨——政府腐败、没电、没水等等。但如果一个外国人说同样的话、念同样的抱怨清单，尼日利亚人就会变得防御，有时甚至愤怒。我一直对这种防御心理感到好奇——顺便说，我自己也常常如此。在我看来，我们之所以这样，是因为我们假定抱怨的尼日利亚人知道尼日利亚不只是它的问题，知道人性的复杂，知道人们的智慧和创造力，知道他们如何哭如何笑，知道他们的动力、渴望和珍视之物。而我们怀疑外国人不知道关于我们的这些其他故事，于是担心被我们缺少什么、不是什么所单独定义。于是防御心就出现了。”
veddox查看英文原文
This is a beautiful (and very true) passage: "Among Nigerians, complaining about our problems is an art form. Most conversations quickly become a litany of complaints – about government corruption, no light, no water, etc. But if a foreigner were to say the same things, to recite the same litany of complaints, Nigerians would become defensive, sometimes angrily so. "I have always been curious about this brand of defensiveness – which I myself often exhibit, by the way. It seems to me that we have it because we assume that the complaining Nigerian is aware that Nigeria is not only about its problems, is aware of the human complexity, knows of the intelligence and ingenuity of people, knows how they cry and laugh, knows what motivates them and what they aspire to and what they find meaningful. And we suspect that the foreigner does not know these other stories about us and so we worry about being defined solely by what we do not have and by what we are not. And so our defensiveness emerges."
“非洲文学”存在题材和写法上的刻板期待，个人真实经验常被排除在“代表性”之外。
我完全理解这一点。我想写一本关于我高中生活的书。有一件事让我担心：尽管非洲是个多元的地方，但人们期待“非洲文学”必须以特定方式书写特定主题和经历。我不确定出身上层家庭、就读昂贵私立学校是否算数。
fgandiya查看英文原文
> It is to be scrutinised for the right kind of African representation. You are required to perform the rituals. You are required to bow to the expectations of citizenship. I totally get this. I wanted to write a book which centered around my life in high school. One thing that worries me is that even though Africa is a diverse place, there's an expectation that "African literature" should be written in a particular way on particular subjects and experiences. I doubt coming from an upper class family attending a fancy private school counts as such.
所谓“艺术不应政治化”的标准常被双重使用：经典政治作品受尊崇，多元声音的政治表达却被指“太政治”。
在我经验中这段话相当尖锐且一针见血。我是写暗黑科幻的作者，这也是我对本领域状况的理解。围绕 Sad/Rabid Puppies、Gamergate、Racefail 等，总有大讨论说政治应该远离艺术，或艺术应无关政治，或艺术中的政治是迎合、是糟糕的。我觉得对艺术中政治的挑选其实很特定——《1984》《华氏451》、安·兰德的作品是受尊崇的政治作品。但带有鲜明多元声音的作品常因此被诟病——新星球大战、新星际迷航（即便旧的星际迷航也相当多元却被好评）。我见过批评说这些“太政治”，但我还没见谁抱怨《1984》作为科幻太政治，或《美丽新世界》塞了太多政治。不过也可能是我对这类批评读得不够多……
SolaceQuantum查看英文原文
"It is difficult in the West to talk about the connections between creating and citizenship because of the general ideas placed around art, that it is a thing apart, that an artist by creating suddenly becomes a citizen of an imaginary and apolitical land of other artists. There are people in the West who use the term “political” almost as a pejorative in reference to a work of literature. (I emphasise the West because in parts of the world called developing, art is often not seen as automatically separate from politics.)" This is quite poignant and on the nose in my experience. I'm a dark science fiction author and this has been my understanding of the situation in my field also. With the Sad/Rabid puppies, Gamergate, Racefail, etc. its always been a large discussion that politics should stay out of art, or that art should be apolitical, or that politics in art is pandering/bad. I feel that the selection of politics in art is actually quite specific- 1984, Farenheit 451, Ayn Rand's works are political with esteem. But works in a distinctly diverse voice are often chagrined for it- the new star wars stuff, the new star trek stuff (even when the old star trek stuff, which is also quite diverse, is well regarded). I've seen criticism that these are 'too political', but I've yet to see someone complaining that 1984 is too political of a scifi piece, or that Brave New World is shoving too much politics in its scifi. But I may just not be adequately read on criticisms of those works- I only have so much attention and I've found the loudest voices are of the most recent works of our time. So I agree that in the West, describing fiction as political is sometimes used in a pejorative manner, even though several well-regarded works are very political. It's just certain politics are broadly considered 'too far' and hyperfocused on identity in a negative sense. I don't understand this phenomenon myself, actually, but her observance is also my observance here as a Western writer. But her later writing, about not only writing politically, but also being viewed in a political light are also true to me. Even as one does not write with a political agenda, the writing will be interpreted in a political lens and then you the author will be held responsible. This contrast between that which is viewed politically and that which is written politically is a core of significant amounts of chagrin within the field of science fiction writing. The final paragraph, before the quote, encompasses so much that I relate to. (I still respect that, as an American author, I could never fully relate to her experiences as a Nigerian author. I respect that her experiences are her own. Merely that I relate to aspects of it.) "That question “Are you an African Writer?” is one I have been asked many times, and there are times when I have answered “Yes”, a yes that reflected my ambivalence but also my anxiety not to be misunderstood. I belong, was what my “Yes” said, I belong. But that “Yes” often came with a whisper: “But you must let me belong on my own terms, on multiple terms, for that is the essence of art.”"
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