《乐观者的女儿》中的饮食书写、性别政治与地域道德

Food Narrative,Sexual Politics and Regional Morality in The Optimist’s Daughter

饮食书写是美国南方文学的标志性特征之一。与饮食相关的意象和场景在尤多拉·韦尔蒂的长篇小说《乐观者的女儿》中占据十分重要的位置,其中最突出的是麦凯尔瓦法官的葬礼筵席以及贝基的菜谱和揉面板。如果将社区精神和孝道伦理作为情感参照,读者便能更加深切地理解劳雷尔在小说结尾做出的选择:烧掉母亲的菜谱、放弃镌刻着亲情的揉面板、离开充满回忆的老家。藉由这部具有浓厚自传色彩的作品,韦尔蒂深刻反思了20世纪中期美国南方的性别政治和地域道德。

One of the hallmarks of American Southern literature is its food narrative.Food-related images and scenarios play a prominent role in Eudora Welty’s The Optimist’s Daughter,among which the most striking are Judge McKelva’s funeral banquet and Becky’s recipes and breadboard.If the sense of community and filial piety are set as emotional benchmark,the readers can sympathize more heartfeltly with Laurel’s final decisions:burning her mother’s recipes,giving up the breadboard filled with family bond,and leaving her childhood home.Through this intensely autobiographical novel,Welty probes into the sexual politics and regional morality in the mid-twentieth century American South.