寻找身份的历程——对《可食的女人》的主题研究
摘要
由于在诗歌、小说、短篇故事和文学评论等方面对英语文学所做出的杰出贡献，玛格丽特·阿特伍德被誉为“加拿大文学女皇”。《可食的女人》是她的第一部小说，虽然没有像她之后的作品那样细腻，但它的独特之处在于：小说发表之时书中的许多女性主义观点还没有被西方文化充分发掘。在小说中，阿特伍德成功地将性别角色、消费主义与寻找自我这一主题联系在一起，而这些在三十多年后的今天仍有深刻的借鉴意义。
本文以玛格丽特·阿特伍德所著的《可食的女人》为研究对象，展示了西方消费社会中女性探寻身份的历程。在论述中，我发现女性作为顺从低廉的劳动力，是社会的生力军；作为温顺的妻子，是服务于核心家庭的再生力量。通过对女主人公玛丽安厌食症和自我分裂的分析，我论述了妇女被消费社会定位和吞噬的事实，并阐述了女性只有通过勇敢面对困境，塑造独立自强人格，才能重获完整真实的自我。
本文由三个部分组成。第一部分通过对玛丽安的职业生活及克莱拉的家庭生活的描述，介绍了二十世纪六十年代加拿大妇女在社会中的地位和作用。玛丽安如同许许多多知识女性一样，身陷于简单枯燥的工作之中。作为一名市场调查员，她的职业似乎很有意义，但却无法为她找到生活的真实方向。玛丽安是美国著名作家朱迪丝·安所描述的“粉领无产者”的典型代表。她曾经期待男人和婚姻可以帮助她摆脱困扰，但是她发现婚姻生活把大学好友克莱拉从一个“中世纪美女”变成了一个纯粹的“生育工具”，而她的室友安丝丽只醉心于为人母的体验，却不想结婚。克莱拉痛苦的婚姻生活和安丝丽的极端想法加剧了玛丽安的不安和焦虑。她在职业生涯和朋友们的家庭生活中都没有找到一个可遵循的、积极的生活方式，所以她只能遵从社会的意愿，接受彼得的求婚，做一个传统的女性。
论文的第二部分着重论述了玛丽安探寻自我的历程。通过与两个男人交往的痛苦经历，玛丽安最终获得了自我意识。
在这一部分的论述中，我首先讨论了彼得的消费者角色，这是一种由男权文化所规定的角色。在彼得看来，两性角色中，男性应主宰女性，女性应满足男性的需求。彼得之所以选择玛丽安，是因为她愿意为了满足他的需求而放弃自己的需求。由始至终彼得都试图改变玛丽安，使之成为他心目中的完美女性。受消费主义的影响，玛丽安根据彼得的“包装”选择了他，而并不了解他的内心。在与彼得的交往中，玛丽安经历了越来越强烈的被追捕的焦虑。玛丽安的消极被动性导致了她的物化，她开始把自己等同于可食用的东西，并逐渐丧失了进食的能力。她的厌食症是身体对消费主义的抗拒，对外部环境强加给她的女性角色的抗拒。随着进食能力的丧失，玛丽安还感觉到自己的身体在消融。爱玛·帕克认为，进食被用来比喻拥有力量，不能进食则是力量的丧失，食物是身体的“燃料”，那么厌食则使身体成为无力的载体。因此，阿特伍德的女主人公们都对她们的身体有一种强烈的不安。玛丽安试图用男性作为自己的护身符，来保护自己脆弱的女性内质，她仍寄望于男人把她从这种消融中解救出来。
其次，我论述了在邓肯的帮助下，玛丽安逐步获得了自我意识的艰苦历程。叙述人称由第一人称“我”到第三人称“她”的转变，暗示着玛丽安人格上的自我分裂，她的一半被推向了社会，欲作彼得的妻子；另一半游离于社会之外，被瘦弱的邓肯所吸引。玛丽安不停地奔走在彼得和邓肯之间，反映了她在两个自我之间的游离徘徊。玛丽安试着扮演双重角色：为了邓肯，她扮演佛罗伦萨·南丁格尔式的随叫随到的慰藉者；为了彼得，她着上红裙，配以优雅的发式，扮演他温顺漂亮的女友。订婚晚会集中了所有的紧张气氛和冲突，玛丽安觉得她的红裙越来越使自己成为被猎杀的“理想目标”，她最终从彼得处逃离，奔向邓肯。这意味着她从社会所要求的女性形象回归到真实的自我。
邓肯是玛丽安饥饿的自我，也是联系玛丽安真实世界和虚幻世界的纽带。邓肯鼓励她保持真实的自我，并粉碎了她作为慰藉者的形象。于是在玛丽安拒
绝了做彼得的妻子这一形象之后，她唯一保持的形象——邓肯的慰藉者，也不复存在了。她现在没有了身份，必须为自己重新确定一个身份。邓肯鼓励她回到现实中去解决问题，并象征性地为她指出了回去的路。
在论文第三部分中，我论述了玛丽安意识到她的被动性和消费主义的影响，是导致她痛苦的根源，她知道逃避解决不了问题，于是决定坦然面对现实。她烘烤了一个女人形象的蛋糕，用来代表她以前温顺软弱的自我，这个旧的自我使她成为消费社会的消费品。当彼得拒绝与她共享这块蛋糕并离去时，玛丽安突然间感觉到非常饥饿，她的厌食症不治而愈，她走出了自己的困境，重新找回了自我。她吃掉蛋糕的行为，象征着她告别了从前的自我，是对男权消费社会无声的反抗和愚弄，同时也证明了她与社会的融合，她明白了自己既是一个消费者又是一个被消费者。看起来玛丽安从终点又回到了起点，而且情况更糟的是，她现在没有了工作，没有了未婚夫，也没有了室友。就像玛格丽特·阿特伍德自己所说的：“玛丽安在故事的结尾和开头的选择是一样的。”但我想要说明的是，虽然玛丽安并没有改变社会和自己?
Margaret Atwood is internationally known as “a champion of Canadian literature” for her glorious contribution to English literature and as an expert in poetry, novels, short stories and literary review. The Edible Woman is her first novel. Although not refined as her later works, it is unique in that it was written during a time when many of the feminist ideas in the novel hadn’t been fully explored by western culture yet. In the novel, Atwood successfully brings together ideas of gender roles, consumerism and perceptions of self, which are of revealing significance even today.
This thesis examines Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman, which acts out the search for female identity in contemporary western consumer society. In my discussion of the novel, women, being docile, underpaid workers, are productive in the workplace, and being compliant wives, are reproductive in the service of the nuclear family. Through the analysis of a woman’s (namely Marian’s) anorexia and self-alienation, this thesis shows how women are consumed and appropriated by the consumer society. The authentic-self which is fragmented and lost can only be regained through the woman’s confrontation with the predicament and reconstruction of a braver self-reliant persona.
Section One is concerned with a woman’s role in the consumer society of 1960s’ Canada through the description of Marian’s professional life and Clara’s domestic life. Marian McAlphin, one among the masses of women who graduated with BA degrees in the 1960s ends up stuck in a menial job. Her work as a consumer consultant gives her the illusion of a meaningful occupation but fails utterly to provide her with any real direction in life. Being what Judith Ann called “secretarial proletariat”, Marian contemplates a man and a marriage as a way out of her troublesome work. But marital life has changed her friend Clara, a former “medieval
beauty”, into a woman with only natural life, exhausted in giving birth. Clara has turned herself into an instrument to multiply lives. Marian’s roommate Ainsley is absorbed in motherhood but determined not to marry. Clara’s horrible, miserable marital life and Ainsley’s radical ideas intensify Marian’s work-related paranoia. Marian fails to find a positive role model in both professional life and domestic life, she is left in an empty state and succumb to irrational behavior due to her lack of self-knowledge. She just follows the social expectation---being a stereotyped femininity by accepting Peter’s proposal of marriage.
In Section Two the thesis focuses on Marian’s exploration of the self. Marian gradually achieves self-knowledge through her painful experiences with two men. The section begins with a discussion of Peter’s role as a consumer man prescribed by the patriarchal culture in the society. His idea on gender roles is that male should dominate female, female is there to meet the needs of male. Peter chooses Marian because of her willingness to give in to his desires. Throughout the story Peter tries to change Marian to match his image of the perfect femininity. Influenced by consumerism, Marian chooses Peter according to his “package” without knowing his real inside. Throughout her interaction with Peter, Marian experiences an escalating anxiety of being hunted and captured. Marian’s female passivity leads to her objectification, she begins to identify herself with edible things. Gradually she loses her ability to eat. The roots of her anorexia are explored: it is her body’s refusal to participate in the consumerism and her body’s rejection of the “femininity” which imposed on her by the external expectation.
Along with Marian’s inability to eat, she also imagines her body dissolving. According to Emma Parker, eating is employed as a metaphor for power, powerlessness is primarily symbolized by non-eating. Body, that which food fuels, becomes a secondary site of powerlessness, Hence Atwood’s heroines experiences a
strong sense of unease about their body. Marian tries to erect a protective “m
本文以玛格丽特·阿特伍德所著的《可食的女人》为研究对象，展示了西方消费社会中女性探寻身份的历程。在论述中，我发现女性作为顺从低廉的劳动力，是社会的生力军；作为温顺的妻子，是服务于核心家庭的再生力量。通过对女主人公玛丽安厌食症和自我分裂的分析，我论述了妇女被消费社会定位和吞噬的事实，并阐述了女性只有通过勇敢面对困境，塑造独立自强人格，才能重获完整真实的自我。
本文由三个部分组成。第一部分通过对玛丽安的职业生活及克莱拉的家庭生活的描述，介绍了二十世纪六十年代加拿大妇女在社会中的地位和作用。玛丽安如同许许多多知识女性一样，身陷于简单枯燥的工作之中。作为一名市场调查员，她的职业似乎很有意义，但却无法为她找到生活的真实方向。玛丽安是美国著名作家朱迪丝·安所描述的“粉领无产者”的典型代表。她曾经期待男人和婚姻可以帮助她摆脱困扰，但是她发现婚姻生活把大学好友克莱拉从一个“中世纪美女”变成了一个纯粹的“生育工具”，而她的室友安丝丽只醉心于为人母的体验，却不想结婚。克莱拉痛苦的婚姻生活和安丝丽的极端想法加剧了玛丽安的不安和焦虑。她在职业生涯和朋友们的家庭生活中都没有找到一个可遵循的、积极的生活方式，所以她只能遵从社会的意愿，接受彼得的求婚，做一个传统的女性。
论文的第二部分着重论述了玛丽安探寻自我的历程。通过与两个男人交往的痛苦经历，玛丽安最终获得了自我意识。
在这一部分的论述中，我首先讨论了彼得的消费者角色，这是一种由男权文化所规定的角色。在彼得看来，两性角色中，男性应主宰女性，女性应满足男性的需求。彼得之所以选择玛丽安，是因为她愿意为了满足他的需求而放弃自己的需求。由始至终彼得都试图改变玛丽安，使之成为他心目中的完美女性。受消费主义的影响，玛丽安根据彼得的“包装”选择了他，而并不了解他的内心。在与彼得的交往中，玛丽安经历了越来越强烈的被追捕的焦虑。玛丽安的消极被动性导致了她的物化，她开始把自己等同于可食用的东西，并逐渐丧失了进食的能力。她的厌食症是身体对消费主义的抗拒，对外部环境强加给她的女性角色的抗拒。随着进食能力的丧失，玛丽安还感觉到自己的身体在消融。爱玛·帕克认为，进食被用来比喻拥有力量，不能进食则是力量的丧失，食物是身体的“燃料”，那么厌食则使身体成为无力的载体。因此，阿特伍德的女主人公们都对她们的身体有一种强烈的不安。玛丽安试图用男性作为自己的护身符，来保护自己脆弱的女性内质，她仍寄望于男人把她从这种消融中解救出来。
其次，我论述了在邓肯的帮助下，玛丽安逐步获得了自我意识的艰苦历程。叙述人称由第一人称“我”到第三人称“她”的转变，暗示着玛丽安人格上的自我分裂，她的一半被推向了社会，欲作彼得的妻子；另一半游离于社会之外，被瘦弱的邓肯所吸引。玛丽安不停地奔走在彼得和邓肯之间，反映了她在两个自我之间的游离徘徊。玛丽安试着扮演双重角色：为了邓肯，她扮演佛罗伦萨·南丁格尔式的随叫随到的慰藉者；为了彼得，她着上红裙，配以优雅的发式，扮演他温顺漂亮的女友。订婚晚会集中了所有的紧张气氛和冲突，玛丽安觉得她的红裙越来越使自己成为被猎杀的“理想目标”，她最终从彼得处逃离，奔向邓肯。这意味着她从社会所要求的女性形象回归到真实的自我。
邓肯是玛丽安饥饿的自我，也是联系玛丽安真实世界和虚幻世界的纽带。邓肯鼓励她保持真实的自我，并粉碎了她作为慰藉者的形象。于是在玛丽安拒
绝了做彼得的妻子这一形象之后，她唯一保持的形象——邓肯的慰藉者，也不复存在了。她现在没有了身份，必须为自己重新确定一个身份。邓肯鼓励她回到现实中去解决问题，并象征性地为她指出了回去的路。
在论文第三部分中，我论述了玛丽安意识到她的被动性和消费主义的影响，是导致她痛苦的根源，她知道逃避解决不了问题，于是决定坦然面对现实。她烘烤了一个女人形象的蛋糕，用来代表她以前温顺软弱的自我，这个旧的自我使她成为消费社会的消费品。当彼得拒绝与她共享这块蛋糕并离去时，玛丽安突然间感觉到非常饥饿，她的厌食症不治而愈，她走出了自己的困境，重新找回了自我。她吃掉蛋糕的行为，象征着她告别了从前的自我，是对男权消费社会无声的反抗和愚弄，同时也证明了她与社会的融合，她明白了自己既是一个消费者又是一个被消费者。看起来玛丽安从终点又回到了起点，而且情况更糟的是，她现在没有了工作，没有了未婚夫，也没有了室友。就像玛格丽特·阿特伍德自己所说的：“玛丽安在故事的结尾和开头的选择是一样的。”但我想要说明的是，虽然玛丽安并没有改变社会和自己?
Margaret Atwood is internationally known as “a champion of Canadian literature” for her glorious contribution to English literature and as an expert in poetry, novels, short stories and literary review. The Edible Woman is her first novel. Although not refined as her later works, it is unique in that it was written during a time when many of the feminist ideas in the novel hadn’t been fully explored by western culture yet. In the novel, Atwood successfully brings together ideas of gender roles, consumerism and perceptions of self, which are of revealing significance even today.
This thesis examines Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman, which acts out the search for female identity in contemporary western consumer society. In my discussion of the novel, women, being docile, underpaid workers, are productive in the workplace, and being compliant wives, are reproductive in the service of the nuclear family. Through the analysis of a woman’s (namely Marian’s) anorexia and self-alienation, this thesis shows how women are consumed and appropriated by the consumer society. The authentic-self which is fragmented and lost can only be regained through the woman’s confrontation with the predicament and reconstruction of a braver self-reliant persona.
Section One is concerned with a woman’s role in the consumer society of 1960s’ Canada through the description of Marian’s professional life and Clara’s domestic life. Marian McAlphin, one among the masses of women who graduated with BA degrees in the 1960s ends up stuck in a menial job. Her work as a consumer consultant gives her the illusion of a meaningful occupation but fails utterly to provide her with any real direction in life. Being what Judith Ann called “secretarial proletariat”, Marian contemplates a man and a marriage as a way out of her troublesome work. But marital life has changed her friend Clara, a former “medieval
beauty”, into a woman with only natural life, exhausted in giving birth. Clara has turned herself into an instrument to multiply lives. Marian’s roommate Ainsley is absorbed in motherhood but determined not to marry. Clara’s horrible, miserable marital life and Ainsley’s radical ideas intensify Marian’s work-related paranoia. Marian fails to find a positive role model in both professional life and domestic life, she is left in an empty state and succumb to irrational behavior due to her lack of self-knowledge. She just follows the social expectation---being a stereotyped femininity by accepting Peter’s proposal of marriage.
In Section Two the thesis focuses on Marian’s exploration of the self. Marian gradually achieves self-knowledge through her painful experiences with two men. The section begins with a discussion of Peter’s role as a consumer man prescribed by the patriarchal culture in the society. His idea on gender roles is that male should dominate female, female is there to meet the needs of male. Peter chooses Marian because of her willingness to give in to his desires. Throughout the story Peter tries to change Marian to match his image of the perfect femininity. Influenced by consumerism, Marian chooses Peter according to his “package” without knowing his real inside. Throughout her interaction with Peter, Marian experiences an escalating anxiety of being hunted and captured. Marian’s female passivity leads to her objectification, she begins to identify herself with edible things. Gradually she loses her ability to eat. The roots of her anorexia are explored: it is her body’s refusal to participate in the consumerism and her body’s rejection of the “femininity” which imposed on her by the external expectation.
Along with Marian’s inability to eat, she also imagines her body dissolving. According to Emma Parker, eating is employed as a metaphor for power, powerlessness is primarily symbolized by non-eating. Body, that which food fuels, becomes a secondary site of powerlessness, Hence Atwood’s heroines experiences a
strong sense of unease about their body. Marian tries to erect a protective “m
引文
(2) Ann, Judith. “Secretarial Proletariat”. Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Women’s Liberation Movement. Comp. Robin Morgan. New York: Random House, 1970. 86-100.
(4) Goldblatt, Patricia F., “Reconstructing Margaret Atwood’s Protagonists,” in World Literature Today, Vol.73, Spring 1999, 275
Harting, Heike. “The Profusion of Meaning and the Female Experience of Colonisation: Inscriptions of the Body as the Site of Difference in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions and Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman.” Ed. Peter o. Strummer and Christopher Balme. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996.243
Greene, Gayle. “Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman: ‘Rebelling Against the System.’” Margaret Atwood, Reflection and Reality. Ed. James M. Haule and Beatrice Mender-Efle. Edinburg, TX: Pan American UP, 1987, 106
Parker, Emma, You Are What You Eat: The politics of Eating in the Novels of Margaret Atwood, Twentieth Century,1995; 41,3.
Alan, Dawe. “Introduction”, The Edible Woman, New Canadian Library, No.93 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1973).
Kelly, Darlene, “Either Way, I Stand Condemned,” in English Studies in Canada, Vol. 21, No. 3, Sept. 1995, 320-322.
Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature Toronto: McClelland &Stewart Inc. 1996, 36.
Margaret Kaminski, “Preserving Mythologies”, Margaret Atwood: Conversations, ed. Earl Ingersoll, Ontario Review Press, 1990,28
Catherine Mclay, The Dark Voyage: The Edible Woman as a Romance”, The Art
of Margaret Atwood, eds. Arnold E. Davidson& Cathy N. Davidson, Toronto: Anansi, 1981, 138.
Alice and the Animals: The Edible Woman and Early Poems Barbara Hill Rigney MacMillan Education 34.
Margaret Atwood, Second Words, Toronto: Anansi, 1982,370.
张京媛，《当代女性主义文学批评》北京大学出版社，1955。
柯西多夫斯基著[波] 刁传基、顾蕴璞译，《圣经故事》天津出版社，1981
张岩冰，《女权主义文论》山东教育出版社，1998
张金秀，“消费社会’吃’女人的本质——论加拿大女作家阿特伍德的长篇小说《可食的女人》”《社科纵横》，1997第4期
代冰，“试析阿特伍德小说中女性的自我回归”《外语与外语教学》，1997年第1期（总第96期）
丁林棚，“阿特伍德小说中’潜入地下’主题的反复出现”《国外文学》，2002年第1期（总第85期）
蓝瑛波，“美国女权主义历史进程述评” 江苏省社会科学院
柴焰、焦勇勤，“文本颠覆与重建——美国女权主义文艺理论研究”山东省青年管理干部学院学报，2002第4期（总第98期）
赵满，“美国女权主义文学批评”《社科纵横》，1995第5期
时晓红，“试论60年代美国女权运动”山东师大学报刊1996第1期
于善江、陈艺娟，“玛格丽特·阿特伍德的创作历程”四川外语学院学报，第16卷第4期
(4) Goldblatt, Patricia F., “Reconstructing Margaret Atwood’s Protagonists,” in World Literature Today, Vol.73, Spring 1999, 275
Harting, Heike. “The Profusion of Meaning and the Female Experience of Colonisation: Inscriptions of the Body as the Site of Difference in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions and Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman.” Ed. Peter o. Strummer and Christopher Balme. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996.243
Greene, Gayle. “Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman: ‘Rebelling Against the System.’” Margaret Atwood, Reflection and Reality. Ed. James M. Haule and Beatrice Mender-Efle. Edinburg, TX: Pan American UP, 1987, 106
Parker, Emma, You Are What You Eat: The politics of Eating in the Novels of Margaret Atwood, Twentieth Century,1995; 41,3.
Alan, Dawe. “Introduction”, The Edible Woman, New Canadian Library, No.93 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1973).
Kelly, Darlene, “Either Way, I Stand Condemned,” in English Studies in Canada, Vol. 21, No. 3, Sept. 1995, 320-322.
Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature Toronto: McClelland &Stewart Inc. 1996, 36.
Margaret Kaminski, “Preserving Mythologies”, Margaret Atwood: Conversations, ed. Earl Ingersoll, Ontario Review Press, 1990,28
Catherine Mclay, The Dark Voyage: The Edible Woman as a Romance”, The Art
of Margaret Atwood, eds. Arnold E. Davidson& Cathy N. Davidson, Toronto: Anansi, 1981, 138.
Alice and the Animals: The Edible Woman and Early Poems Barbara Hill Rigney MacMillan Education 34.
Margaret Atwood, Second Words, Toronto: Anansi, 1982,370.
张京媛，《当代女性主义文学批评》北京大学出版社，1955。
柯西多夫斯基著[波] 刁传基、顾蕴璞译，《圣经故事》天津出版社，1981
张岩冰，《女权主义文论》山东教育出版社，1998
张金秀，“消费社会’吃’女人的本质——论加拿大女作家阿特伍德的长篇小说《可食的女人》”《社科纵横》，1997第4期
代冰，“试析阿特伍德小说中女性的自我回归”《外语与外语教学》，1997年第1期（总第96期）
丁林棚，“阿特伍德小说中’潜入地下’主题的反复出现”《国外文学》，2002年第1期（总第85期）
蓝瑛波，“美国女权主义历史进程述评” 江苏省社会科学院
柴焰、焦勇勤，“文本颠覆与重建——美国女权主义文艺理论研究”山东省青年管理干部学院学报，2002第4期（总第98期）
赵满，“美国女权主义文学批评”《社科纵横》，1995第5期
时晓红，“试论60年代美国女权运动”山东师大学报刊1996第1期
于善江、陈艺娟，“玛格丽特·阿特伍德的创作历程”四川外语学院学报，第16卷第4期