紀念拉爾夫·埃里森百年誕辰

Robert Siegle（Host）：Ralph Ellisons 1952 novel，“Invisible Man，” is a searing exploration of race and identity. It won the National Book Award and was named one of the 100 best novels of the 20th century by Time magazine and the Modern Library.

A monument outside 730 Riverside Drive in Harlem， Ellisons longtime home， lists his birth year as 1914. So do many biographical sources. In fact， he was born a year earlier. Still events in Oklahoma City， his birthplace， and New York City are celebrating Ellisons centennial this year. Tom Vitale has his appreciation of his life and work.

Tom Vitale （Byline）： 135th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard， Harlem. Ralph Ellison walked the streets in 1938 interviewing people for a history of African-Americans for the Federal Writers Project. Almost half a century later， Ellison told me that experience was essential in shaping the writer he became.

（Soundbite of archived broadcast.）

Ralph Ellison： Some of those interviews affirmed the stories that I had heard from my elders as I grew up. They gave me a much richer sense of what the culture was. I might say it was like taking a course in history.

Vitale：The history of African-Americans in the first half of the 20th century provides the backdrop for his novel “Invisible Man.” The unnamed narrator grows up in the rural South， attends a prestigious black university， then travels north to Harlem where his first embrace and then rejected by leftist intellectuals. The novels opening lines reflect the themes that run throughout the story.

Gibran Muhammad：（reading） I am an invisible man. No， I am not a spook like those who haunted [1]Edgar Allan Poe， nor am I one of your Hollywood movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance， of flesh and bone， fiber and liquids. And I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible， understand， simply because people refuse to see me.

Vitale：The reader is Kahlil Gibran Muhammad， director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the great-grandson of the late Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammed. He says Ellisons treatment of race in the 1952 novel anticipated questions about the future of African-Americans that still resonate.

Muhammad：Whether we look at the invisibility of a[2]Trayvon Martin or the invisibility of a [3]Magic Johnson， in light of the most recent controversies over [4]Donald Sterling， or even the ways in which the contemporary art world for black visual artists turn on whether they have a responsibility to depict blackness through traditional narratives are all themes that Ralph Ellison brought to his work.

Vitale：To mark Ellisons centenary， the Schomburg Center in Harlem where the novelist did some of his research， presented a day of readings from “Invisible Man.”

Nelaja Muhammad：（reading） The whole of Harlem seemed to fall apart in the swirl of snow.

Vitale：17-year-old Nelaja Muhammed， who is no relation to the Schomburg director， read a scene in which the narrator buys a baked yam from the corner stand. And the aroma releases a Proustian flood of memories. Nelaja Muhammad， a high school junior who lives in Harlem says even though the book was written more than 60 years ago， its narrator endures the same challenges as African-Americans today.

Muhammad：If he wants other people to believe that hes his own person， he has to believe in it himself. So I kind of relate to that because everyone goes through struggles， everyone goes hardships， and at times people give up on themselves. But at that one moment where you realize that you are worth it， you have to be able to realize that youre not alone.

Vitale：Ralph Ellison drew on his own struggles to create“Invisible Man.” He was born in Oklahoma City to Lewis and Ida Ellison， who named him Ralph Waldo Ellison after the 19th-century American writer， [5]Emerson. When he was 3， his father died after an accident delivering ice to a grocery store.

Arnold Rampersad：I think the death of his father when he was 3 was the decisive event of his earlier life. Vitale：Arnold Rampersad is author of a 600-page biography of Ralph Ellison.

Rampersad：Because it plunged his family into poverty. Although he had influential， upstanding friends and patrons in his youth， he really was always aware that he had virtually nothing and was dependent on others.

Vitale：Rampersad says Ellison spent the rest of his life trying to redress his impoverished beginnings. He became something of a renaissance man， turning to sculpture， photography and music. He studied the cornet and then trumpet and piano. In 1933， he attended the Tuskeegee Institute in Alabama intent on becoming a composer. 3 years later， he traveled to New York to earn money to pay his tuition. There he met writers [6]Langston Hughes and[7]Richard Wright.

Rampersad：He started late as a writer. He was 22 or so before Richard Wright turned to him one day and said， why dont you try a short story？ And he worked very hard over a period of seven years to produce a masterpiece. And he succeeded.

Vitale：In 1983， Ralph Ellison said he wasnt writing only about the black experience in “Invisible Man，” he was writing about the human experience.

（Soundbite of archived broadcast.）

Ellison：When I was a kid， I read the English novels. I read Russian translations and so on. And always. I was the hero. I identified with the hero. Literature is integrated， and Im not just talking about color or race. Im talking about the power of literature to make us recognize—and again and again—the wholeness of the human experience.

Vitale：“Invisible Man” was published to rave reviews in 1952. A year later， the novel won the National Book Award， beating out works by Ernest Hemmingway and John Steinbeck.

Muhammad：（reading） Being invisible and without substance—a disembodied voice， as it were—what else could I do？ What else but try to tell you what was really happening when your eyes were looking through？ And it is this which frightens me.

Vitale：After “Invisible Man，” Ralph Ellison spent the rest of his life working on a second novel. When he died from pancreatic cancer in 1994， he left behind 1，600 pages of an unfinished manuscript. It was eventually published under the title “Juneteenth.”

羅伯特·西格爾（主持人）：拉爾夫·埃里森于1952年發(fā)表的小說《看不見的人》是對種族和人性作出的震撼人心的探索。它曾贏得“國家圖書獎”，被《時代》雜志和現代文庫評為20世紀最好的100部小說之一。

（紐約市）哈萊姆區(qū)河濱快車道730號，曾是埃里森長期居住的地方，在這之外的一座紀念碑上刻著他的出生年份為1914年，如同眾多傳記資料上所記載的一樣。事實上他早一年出生。今年，埃里森百年誕辰紀念活動在他的出生地俄克拉荷馬市以及紐約市進行。湯姆·維達來接下來將評價埃里森的一生及其著作。

湯姆·維達來（記者）：（我現在在）哈萊姆區(qū)第135街馬爾科姆愛克斯大道。1938年，拉爾夫·埃里森走在這些大街上采訪人們，為的是完成聯邦作家計劃中關于非裔美國人歷史的部分。差不多半個世紀之后，埃里森告訴我，那一經歷對他成為作家影響深遠。

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拉爾夫·埃里森：在我成長中從長輩那里聽來的故事在其中一些采訪中得到印證。它們讓我對什么是文化有了更為豐富的認知。我可以說，它就像是在上一堂歷史課。

維達來：20世紀前50年非裔美國人的歷史為他的小說《看不見的人》提供了背景。（小說中）沒有名字的敘述者在南部農村長大，上了一所頗有聲望的黑人大學，之后一路向北來到哈萊姆區(qū)，一度被左派知識分子接納而后拒絕。小說一開篇就映射出貫穿故事始末的主題。

紀伯倫·穆罕默德：（朗讀）我是個你們看不見的人。不，我并非埃德加·艾倫·坡筆下神出鬼沒的幽靈，也不是好萊塢電影中虛無縹緲的幻影。我是一個實實在在的人，有形有骸，有血有肉，甚至還可以說擁有心靈。要知道，別人看不見我，只是因為他們不愿意看到我。

維達來：朗讀者是哈里利·紀伯倫·穆罕默德，他是尚博格黑人文化研究中心的負責人、伊斯蘭國家派領袖伊利賈·穆罕默德的曾孫。他說埃里森1952年的小說對種族問題的態(tài)度預示了至今仍能使非裔美國人產生共鳴的問題。

穆罕默德：我們看到，無論是隱身的特雷沃恩·馬丁還是“魔術師”約翰遜，或是根據最近唐納德·斯特林引發(fā)的爭議，或者甚至是黑人視覺藝術家開啟了他們是否有責任遵循傳統敘述來描寫黑人的當代藝術世界，這些主題都在拉爾夫·埃里森的作品中得到體現。

維達來：埃里森曾在位于哈姆萊區(qū)的尚博格中心作過調研，為了紀念他的百年誕辰，這里舉辦了一天的《看不見的人》讀書會。

內拉賈·穆罕默德：（朗讀）整個哈姆萊區(qū)仿佛散落在紛紛揚揚的雪花中。

維達來：17歲的內拉賈·穆罕默德與尚博格中心負責人并非親故，他朗讀了敘述者在路邊攤買烤紅薯的一幕，撲鼻的香氣觸發(fā)了普魯斯特式的回憶。內拉賈·穆罕默德是住在哈萊姆區(qū)的一個高中少年，他說，即使書中所描述的情節(jié)發(fā)生在60多年前，當中的敘述者忍受著和如今非裔美國人所承受的同樣的挑戰(zhàn)。

穆罕默德：若他想要別人相信他是一個實實在在存在的人，他就必須先相信他自己。因此我對這有些共鳴，因為每個人都曾奮斗過，每個人都會經歷艱難的日子，有時放棄的恰恰是他們自己。但是在那時那刻，你要意識到你值得那么做，你就必須意識到你不是孤單一人。

維達來：拉爾夫·埃里森也是在他的奮斗中創(chuàng)作了《看不見的人》。他在俄克拉荷馬市出生，是劉易斯·埃里森和艾達·埃里森的兒子，他們給他取名拉爾夫·沃爾多·埃里森，這名字來自于19世紀美國作家艾默生。3歲時，他父親在運送冰塊去雜貨店路上的一場意外中喪生。

阿諾德·拉伯賽德：我認為3歲喪父是他早年的決定性事件。維達來：阿諾德·拉伯賽德是長達600頁的拉爾夫·埃里森傳記的作者。

拉伯賽德：因為這使他的家庭一下陷入拮據之中。盡管年輕時有一些有權勢的、正直的朋友和贊助人，他總是銘記著自己實際上一無所有，需要靠別人的資助度日。

維達來：拉伯賽德說埃里森余生都在努力改變貧窮的出身。他成為一個多才多藝的人，會雕刻、攝影和音樂。他學短號，后來又學小號和鋼琴。1933年他考入阿拉巴馬州的塔斯基吉學院想要成為一名作曲家。3年后，他到紐約掙學費，在那兒，他結識了作家蘭斯頓·休斯和理查德·賴特。

拉伯賽德：他是個大器晚成的作家。大約22歲那年的一天，理查德找到他說，為什么你不試試寫短故事？他筆耕不輟，花了7年時間完成了一部杰作。他做到了。

維達來：1983年，拉爾夫·埃里森說《看不見的人》不僅僅是寫黑人的經歷，而是寫人類的經歷。

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埃里森：當我還是個孩子時，我就閱讀英文小說，閱讀俄語翻譯版本等等，并且一直在閱讀。我是英雄，我對英雄感同身受。文學是個整體，我不只是在說膚色或是種族，我是在說文學的力量，讓我們認識到，不斷地認識到整個人類的經歷。

維達來：《看不見的人》在1952年發(fā)表后好評如潮。一年后，該小說一舉擊敗歐內斯特·海明威和約翰·斯坦貝克的作品，贏得了“國家圖書獎”。

穆罕默德：（朗讀）別人看不見我，不是個實實在在的人——一如既往空洞的聲音在回響——我還能做什么？除了當你雙眼一掃而過時告訴你真真切切發(fā)生的一切，我還能做什么？這也是我所畏懼的。

維達來：發(fā)表《看不見的人》之后，拉爾夫·埃里森余生都在創(chuàng)作第二部小說。1994年，他因胰臟癌去世，留下了長達1600頁未完成的作品遺稿，最終（由其遺產執(zhí)行人John Callahan整理加工出版的）以《六月慶典》為書名面世。

注：

[1] Edgar Allan Poe 埃德加·艾倫·坡，19世紀美國詩人、小說家和文學評論家，以神秘故事和恐怖小說聞名于世。

[2] Trayvon Martin 特雷沃恩·馬丁，美國邁阿密地區(qū)的一名黑人高中生，17歲時被槍擊身亡，隨后警察當局對行兇者的延遲拘捕和法律的正義在美國和國際社會引起廣泛關注。

[3] Magic Johnson “魔術師”約翰遜，本名埃爾文·約翰遜，NBA洛杉磯湖人隊的傳奇后衛(wèi)。

[4] Donald Sterling 唐納德·斯特林，NBA洛杉磯快船隊老板，曾流出含有大量種族歧視言論的錄音帶。

[5] Emerson 全名拉爾夫·沃爾多·艾默生（Ralph Waldo Emerson），美國思想家、詩人，被稱為“美國文明之父”。

[6] Langston Hughes 蘭斯頓·休斯，美國黑人作家、詩人，被稱為“美國黑人的桂冠詩人”。

[7] Richard Wright 理查德·賴特，美國黑人作家。