• “Home Away from Home”: Diasporic Consciousness and Everyday Third Places in Tom Murphy’s Conversations on a Homecoming (1985) and Inua Ellams’ Barber Shop Chronicles (2017)
• Moonyoung Hong (bio)

For much of its history, the geography of modern drama has been that of “home.”¹ But the ideas of home and belonging have increasingly stirred political and cultural debate in the age of migration, globalization, and transnationalism. As the concept of home evolves and complexifies, so do dramatic expressions of it. Home is no longer the domestic interior of the bourgeoise, as popularized by the naturalist dramas of Ibsen and Chekhov. This article explores non-domestic dramatic spaces—the Irish pub and the African barbershop—as culturally specific “third places” in two plays: Tom Murphy’s Conversations on a Homecoming (1985)² and Inua Ellams’ Barber Shop Chronicles (2017).³ In the context of diasporic studies, both spaces exemplify what Jana Evans Braziel and Anita Mannur have described as the “nomadic turn in which the very parameters of specific historical movements are embodied and—as diaspora itself suggests—are scattered and regrouped into new points of becoming.”⁴ Both plays deal with the experiences of their representative diasporic communities, revealing the complex connections between host-homelands and overseas communities. A comparative study of the two plays challenges conventional categories of nation and identity, and demonstrates how these everyday third spaces can become sites of contestation against the hegemonic and homogenizing forces of neocolonialism and globalization.

“Third Place” is a term applicable to coffee shops, hair salons, internet [End Page 256] cafes, public libraries, amusement arcades, and many other spaces. As in the case of the Irish pub, it designates locations that are “not work and not home,” “typified by their open, democratic nature, informality and ubiquity.”⁵ The very idea of a “public house” is in a sense an oxymoron, combining contrary terms: public, defined as communal and open, and house, often concerning private, individual, and exclusive habitation. The pub is one of the most frequently visited leisure venues, where most people may be “regulars” of their “locals.”⁶ Elizabeth Malcolm explains that, unlike English pubs, Irish pubs were not purpose-built, and their fittings were strictly functional; they were named after the present or past publican, highlighting the fact that one individual ran the house.⁷ The pub’s homeliness, which derives from its unique origin as a converted house, is a trait evident in Murphy’s Conversations on a Homecoming.

Inua Ellams’ eponymous barbershop is comparable to the pub in that the barbershop blurs normative distinctions between private and public, enabling men to discuss private feelings openly. It is a refuge from a racist post-imperial culture in London. As Ellams puts it, barbershops “for British black men, are a safe, sacred place where they can go to relax, escape racism and talk freely with no fear of being stopped, questioned or moved on by the police, which is a common experience in the world outside.”⁸ He continues:

It’s where men hang out. Barbershops here serve a particular purpose in that there are not many places where black men can gather in large numbers without scrutiny from the police. Quite a few years ago, there was this “sus” law, which meant that the government could stop black men if two or three were gathered and just ask them to move on.⁹

Ellams’ barbershop is set in contrast to the pub, seen as the socially equivalent but nonetheless privileged space for white men. Winston, a character in Barber Shop Chronicles, remarks: “How many of you go pub? Right! Least there’re couple Jamaican ones. But Africans, nothing! That’s why you fill up the barber shop. This is your pub. Yu na drink!” (44). Another character, Tanaka, refutes this by disclosing the historical fact that in South Africa the Tot system (or “dop,” meaning an alcoholic drink in Afrikaans) was used by wine farmers to pay their workers: “white farmers paid coloureds and blacks barrels of wine instead of money. Generations [End Page 257] later, they’re still pissed” (44).¹⁰ Even though the South African parliament outlawed the dop system in 2003, problems of...

• “家外之家”：Tom Murphy 的《归乡对话》（1985 年）和 Inua Ellams 的理发店编年史（2017 年）中的离散意识和日常第三空间
• Moonyoung Hong（生物）

在其历史的大部分时间里，现代戏剧的地理一直是“家”的地理。¹但在移民、全球化和跨国主义时代，家庭和归属感的概念越来越多地激起政治和文化辩论。随着家庭概念的演变和复杂化，它的戏剧性表达也在不断变化。家不再是易卜生和契诃夫的自然主义戏剧所普及的资产阶级的家庭内部。本文探讨了非国内戏剧空间——爱尔兰酒吧和非洲理发店——在两部戏剧中作为文化特定的“第三场所”：汤姆·墨菲的《归乡对话》（1985 年）²和伊努阿·埃拉姆斯的《理发店编年史》（2017 年）。³在散居研究的背景下，这两个空间都体现了 Jana Evans Braziel 和 Anita Mannur 所描述的“游牧转向，其中体现了特定历史运动的参数，并且正如散居本身所暗示的那样——分散并重新组合成新的变得。” ⁴两部剧都讲述了他们具有代表性的侨民社区的经历，揭示了东道国与海外社区之间的复杂联系。对这两部戏剧的比较研究挑战了传统的民族和身份类别，并展示了这些日常的第三空间如何成为对抗新殖民主义和全球化的霸权和同质化力量的场所。

“第三场所”是一个术语，适用于咖啡店、美发沙龙、互联网[End Page 256]咖啡厅、公共图书馆、游乐场和许多其他空间。与爱尔兰酒吧的情况一样，它指定了“不工作也不在家”的地点，“以开放、民主、非正式和无处不在为代表”。⁵ “公共住宅”的概念在某种意义上是矛盾的，它结合了相反的术语：公共，定义为公共和开放，而住宅，通常涉及私人、个人和排他性居住。酒吧是最常光顾的休闲场所之一，大多数人可能是他们“当地人”的“常客”。⁶伊丽莎白马尔科姆解释说，与英国酒吧不同，爱尔兰酒吧不是专门建造的，它们的配件严格来说是实用的。它们以现在或过去的税吏命名，突显了一个人经营这所房子的事实。⁷酒吧的朴素源于其作为改建房屋的独特起源，这在墨菲的《归乡对话》中很明显。

Inua Ellams 的同名理发店可与酒吧相媲美，因为理发店模糊了私人和公共之间的规范区别，使男性能够公开讨论私人感受。它是伦敦种族主义后帝国文化的避难所。正如埃拉姆斯所说，理发店“对于英国黑人来说，是一个安全、神圣的地方，他们可以在那里放松、逃避种族主义和自由交谈，而不必担心被警察拦住、询问或继续前进，这是一种常见的体验在外面的世界。” ⁸他继续说：

这是男人们闲逛的地方。这里的理发店有一个特殊的目的，因为没有多少地方可以让黑人在没有警察审查的情况下大量聚集。几年前，有一条“sus”法，这意味着如果两三个人聚集在一起，政府可以阻止黑人，并要求他们继续前进。⁹

Ellams 的理发店与酒吧形成鲜明对比，酒吧被视为社会平等但仍然享有白人男性特权的空间。理发店编年史中的角色温斯顿评论说：“你们有多少人去酒吧？正确的！至少有几个牙买加人。但是非洲人，什么都没有！这就是你填满理发店的原因。这是你的酒吧。尤娜喝！” (44)。另一个人物，田中，反驳了这一点，他揭露了一个历史事实，即在南非，酒农使用 Tot 系统（或“dop”，意为南非荷兰语中的酒精饮料）来支付他们的工人工资：“白人农民支付有色人种和黑人的酒桶。酒而不是钱。几代人[End Page 257]之后，他们仍然很生气”（44）。¹⁰尽管南非议会在 2003 年取缔了多普制，但...