黑皮埃及艳后引发埃及公愤
文摘
电视剧
2023-05-14 12:12
美国
英国《经济学人》网站于2023年5月10日发表题为《一部关于克利奥帕特拉的新纪录片剧集惹怒了埃及官员》的文章。以下观点不代表任何译者立场，现将全文翻译如下：Culture | Myths and mummiesA new docu-drama about Cleopatra has riled officials in CairoFurious Egyptians have accused Netflix of misrepresenting history![]()
“I detest the Queen,” Cicero opined in around 44bc. The Roman statesman had, at least, held court with Cleopatra before he formed his unflattering opinion of her. Others were less scrupulous. Most surviving classical texts about the last queen of Egypt were written about a century or more after she died in 30bc; the historian Plutarch, Mark Antony’s biographer, fashioned the ruler as a power-hungry manipulator of men. Nor were these authors objective observers of history: Plutarch and his Roman contemporaries tarnished Cleopatra’s name to glorify the Romans who had defeated her.公元前44年古罗马政治家西塞罗发表意见：“我恨这位女王。”但他至少同克利奥帕特拉正式见过面，才产生了不好的印象，但其他人就没有这么严谨了。克利奥帕特拉在中国更为人熟知的名字是埃及艳后，她死于公元前30年，而大多数有关这位埃及最后一位女法老的现存古典文献都写于她死后一个多世纪。古罗马执政官、政治家、军事家马克·安东尼的传记作者，罗马时代的希腊历史学家普鲁塔克将她塑造成一个渴望权力、能够操纵男人的统治者。这些作者并没有客观观察历史，普鲁塔克和他同时代的罗马人为了美化打败她的罗马人，故意抹黑她的名声。As these dubious sources suggest, very little is known about the monarch. (Accounts of women in antiquity—even ruling ones—are scant). That has not stopped historians, poets and authors from trying to flesh out the historical record. The mystery may be part of the allure. Western writers latched on to Cleopatra’s tragic love affairs with Caesar and Mark Antony; medieval sources from the Maghreb praised the pharaoh’s military prowess and her “wisdom”. “As time goes on, different people have seen different things in the story,” says Jane Draycott of Glasgow University.信息来源存疑，我们对女王也知之甚少。（有关古代女性的记载，即使是统治者，也都很少。）历史学家、诗人和作家不断试图充实历史记录，部分是因为这个谜团本身比较吸引人。西方作家揪住女王与古罗马执政官凯撒和马克·安东尼的悲剧恋情；中世纪北非的资料记载则盛赞她的军事才能和“智慧”。格拉斯哥大学的简·德雷科特表示：“随着时间推移，不同人在这个故事中看到了不同事情。”Producers at Netflix are the latest to reconstruct the ruler’s life in “Queen Cleopatra”, a new four-part documentary-drama released on Wednesday. It is part of the “African Queens” history series that Jada Pinkett Smith, an actor, has produced for the streamer. In many respects, Netflix’s pharaoh is not so different from the one depicted by Arabic writers; she is devoted to Egypt. But there is one matter on which these versions of history diverge: the colour of her skin.Netflix的制片人是最近一位重构女王生活的人，周三，他们推出了一部四集纪录片《埃及艳后》，这是演员贾达·平克特·史密斯为Netflix制作的“非洲女王”历史系列的一环。从很多方面来看，Netflix描绘的法老与阿拉伯作家所描绘的并没有太大区别；她为埃及奉献自己。但是这段历史的不同作品在一件事上存在分歧：肤色。Adele James, a mixed-race British actor, plays the lead role in Netflix’s production (pictured, above). This prompted outrage in Egypt: people took to social media to accuse the streaming giant of “blackwashing” Egyptian history. The country’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities released a statement declaring that Cleopatra was “light-skinned”. The spat is indicative of modern Egypt’s protectionist view towards its ancient civilisations. It also exemplifies how academic enquiry into the past is becoming enmeshed with modern identity politics.英国混血演员阿黛尔·詹姆斯在这部Netflix剧集中扮演主角（如上图所示），引发了埃及公愤：人们在社交媒体上指责这家流媒体巨头“黑化”埃及历史。埃及旅游和文物部发布声明，克利奥帕特拉“皮肤白皙”。这场争论表明了现代埃及对其古代文明的保护主义观点，也展现了历史学术研究如何与现代的身份政治纠缠不清。Yet Netflix’s decision to depict Cleopatra in this way is not without justification. In the first episode, commentators acknowledge the uncertainty over the monarch’s racial heritage. Like their predecessors, the show’s experts were working from patchy historical material. To fill in gaps, they relied on the principle of “competitive plausibility”, explains Shelley Haley of Hamilton College in New York state, who appears in the documentary. In other words, the historians considered all the possible scenarios and surmised which was the most likely. This is not a novel or unorthodox approach. But a historian’s own identity influences how they interpret sources, points out Professor Haley. “We can’t be objective,” she argues.然而，Netflix决定以这种方式描绘埃及艳后并非没有理由。在第一集中，评论员们承认不确定女王的种族血统。和前辈一样，剧集的专家只有支离破碎的历史资料。剧集中出镜的纽约州汉密尔顿学院的谢莉·哈利教授解释道，为了填补空白，他们采取了“竞争性合理性”原则。换言之，历史学家考虑了所有可能的情况，并推断出最有可能的那种情况，这并非一种新颖或不正常的方法。但是，哈利教授指出，历史学家自己的身份会影响他们如何阐释信息来源，“我们做不到客观。”![]()
Writing in Variety, Tina Gharavi, the director, explained that she wanted to highlight an often overlooked part of Cleopatra’s story. Hollywood, she argued, has a “stranglehold” over the ruler’s image—a reference to the light-skinned actors who have previously been cast to play her. It is possible that the queen of the Nile had darker skin. Records say she hailed from a Greek-Macedonian dynasty, but the identity of her grandmothers and mother are not known for certain. They could have been native Egyptians; some in this multi-ethnic group may have had darker skin. Not that the Egyptian queen would have been aware of any such racial categories; back then “you were either Egyptian or you were not,” summarises Monica Hanna, an archeologist from Egypt.导演蒂娜·加拉维在《综艺》杂志上撰文解释道，她想突出埃及艳后常常被人忽视的部分。她认为好莱坞“束缚”了这位统治者的形象，也就是指此前扮演她的都是浅肤色演员，而她可能有较深的肤色。记录表明，她来自希腊-马其顿王朝，但她祖母和母亲的身份并没有完全确定，她们可能是埃及本地人，当地的多元族群中有些人可能有较深的肤色。而当时埃及女王不会意识到任何此类种族差异，埃及考古学家莫妮卡·汉纳总结道：“你要么是埃及人，要么不是埃及人。”That Cleopatra’s ancestry is ambiguous does little to mollify Egyptians who maintain that Egypt has its own identity, distinct from the rest of Africa’s. Ms James’s portrayal of Cleopatra, they feel, ignores that. But the vitriol is tainted by racism; “anti-black” discrimination has long been a serious problem in the Arab country.一些埃及人坚持认为埃及有自己的特性，和非洲其他地方不同。埃及艳后不确定的血统很难说服这些人，他们觉得詹姆斯扮演的埃及艳后无视了埃及的特性。但这种斥责沾染上了种族主义，在埃及这个阿拉伯国家，“反黑人”歧视长期以来一直非常严重。“Queen Cleopatra” touches another sore point for Egyptians, concerning who gets to study their ancient civilisations and tell these stories. Until recently, Westerners have dominated Egyptology, a discipline with colonial origins. A desire to reclaim their history from outsiders is perhaps why some Egyptian film-makers are offering up their own narrative—most likely as a response to Netflix’s production. An Egyptian media channel announced in April that it would make its own documentary about Cleopatra. They will strive, they say, for something akin to an objective recreation of history. That is a noble quest, but an impossible one. 对于埃及人来说，埃及艳后触及了另一个痛点，即谁有权研究他们的古代文明并讲述这些故事。一直以来，西方人一直把持着具有殖民地根源的埃及学研究。埃及人希望从外人手里夺回自己的历史，这也许就是为何一些埃及电影制片人正在提出他们的叙事，这很可能是对Netflix剧集的回应。4月，埃及一家媒体宣布将制作有关埃及艳后的纪录片，他们将努力客观还原历史。这是一项崇高的追求，但不可能实现。■“Queen Cleopatra” is streaming on Netflix now
