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1、PeterResonantPresence:KvideraLegalNarrativesandLiterarySpaceinthePoetryofEarlyChineseImmigrantsEtchedintoabarrackswallofSanFranciscoBay’sAngelIslandImmigrationStation,apoemdescribestheconfinementsharedbymanyChinesesojournersinthelate-nineteenth-andearly-twenti
2、ethcenturies,afternewfederalexclusionlawslimitedtheiraccesstotheUnitedStates:Thesea-scaperesembleslichentwistingandturningforathousandli.Thereisnoshoretolandanditisdifficulttowalk.WithagentlebreezeIarrivedatthecitythinkingallwouldbeso.Atease,howwasonetoknowhewa
3、stoliveinawoodenbuilding?1Thisspeaker,oneofhundredswhowrotepoemsonthewallsofAngelIsland,highlightsthedifficultiesofhispassage,buttheforceofthepoemcomesfromhisdismaywhen,atthemomentheshouldattainfreedom,heisimprisonedinstead.2Hetransposestheturbulenceofthevoyage
4、ontotheuncertaintyhefeelsuponarrival.WhetheratseaorintheUnitedStates,hehasno‘‘shoretoland,’’andhefacesrestrictionshecannotpredict.AsthispoetandothersonAngelIslandreveal,theAmericanlandscape,likethetwistingandturningmiasmaofthesea,becomesthesiteofintensefrustr
5、ationfromphysi-calconfinement.Whatthispoetdoesnotstateexplicitly,fellowpoetsclarify:theforcedetainingthesojournersbecomesbothanoccasionandatropeforthepoetry.SomeofthepoetsidentifyAmericanlawsastheper-petratoroftheirrestriction:‘‘Theharshlawspilelayeruponlayer;
6、AmericanLiterature,Volume77,Number3,September2005.Copyright©2005byDukeUniversityPress.512AmericanLiteraturehowcanIdissipatemyhatred?’’(I,#18,56),whileothersnamethespecificlegislation:‘‘Icame...toNorthAmerica,wheretheharshexclusionlawscausemeworry./Allowingyout
7、oentertheplaceofimprisonment’’(I,#12,153).Theselinesdisclosetheirauthors’needtorespondtodetention.Whilethe‘‘hatred’’ishardlydissipated,thepoemsatleastprovideameansforexpressingfrustration,whichthelegalactionthatmanyofthempursueinthecourtsdonot.Liter-arydiscou
8、rseallowswhatlegaldiscoursedenies.Thepoems,how-ever,functionasmorethanrhetoricalalternativestolegaldiscourse.Whenthesecondpoetturnshisattentionto‘‘you,’’heextendshisconditiontohisreaders,
