The discourse of powerlessness and repression: Identity construction in domestic helper narratives 1

This article analyses domestic helper narratives focusing on identity construction in diaspora. It reports on an ongoing research project in a church shelter in Hong Kong where foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) seek help when they have been abused. Many of the stories told by FDHs are trauma narratives about physical assault, starvation, underpayment, and exploitation, and the article explores how narratives may be used as a means for identity construction, but also as a site for empowering FDHs to re‐author their stories and become agents in their own lives. The analyses show how linguistic resources are used to index different identities. They also show that FDHs have to accept forced identities and fight for their right to re‐author their own life stories. Finally, the article provides examples of private and public discourses about FDHs in Hong Kong and suggests that ideologies of moral exclusion, or the local codes of argument, serve to legitimise their dehumanisation. 本文分析散居香港的外籍家庭傭工有關身份建構的敘事話語。本文資料取自一個尚在進行中的研究項目。該項目的受訪者為棲身教會收容所尋求幫助的受虐外傭。項目所收集的訪問內容許多為創傷敘事涉及身體傷害、飢餓、薪酬不足和剝削。除了探討創傷敘事如何用作身份建構的手段本文還將探討這些敘事如何賦與受虐外傭話語權讓她們重敘故事主宰自己的生活。本文的分析將展現 語言資源如何成為標示不同身份的工具並將說明外傭被迫接受強加的身份並為獲得重敘自己故事的權利而鬥爭。文章提供了關涉香港外傭的個人和公眾話語實例並認為道德排外的意識形態或本地輿論準則對外傭所受非人道待遇的合理化發生了作用。[Chinese]