The Politics of Breastfeeding in Northeast Indian Literature

IF 0.3 3区 文学 0 LITERARY THEORY & CRITICISM Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry Pub Date : 2022-09-01 DOI:10.1017/pli.2022.16
M. Dietz
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Abstract

Abstract Breastfeeding, both in its literal consequences on a woman’s body and its symbolic associations with attachment, highlights the simultaneously powerful yet servile position of the maternal figure. I trace this ambivalence in Mahasweta Devi’s story “Breast-Giver,” exploring women’s literal and metaphorical hungers, as well as the hunger their children experience, arguing that breastfeeding often serves as a means of showcasing a woman’s physical limitation based on her familial status as “feeder.” However, I also argue for a profoundly embodied version of the breastfeeding trope, one that negates prior conceptions of breastfeeding as a “taking” and establishes it as a “giving” that not only nourishes one’s family, but also one’s self, as mothers circumvent hierarchical systems of cooking and food preparation. Ultimately, I both lay bare the interconnection between a woman’s body and food-based labor systems and reveal literary methods for their extrication, through narrative instances of breastfeeding.
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东北印度文学中的母乳喂养政治
母乳喂养,无论是对女性身体的字面影响,还是与依恋的象征联系,都突出了母亲形象的强大而又卑躬屈膝的地位。我在马哈维塔·德维(Mahasweta Devi)的故事《给予母乳者》(Breast-Giver)中找到了这种矛盾心理,探讨了女性的字面意义和隐喻性饥饿,以及她们的孩子所经历的饥饿,认为母乳喂养往往是一种展示女性身体限制的手段,这种限制是基于她作为“喂养者”的家庭地位。然而,我也主张母乳喂养比喻的一个深刻体现版本,这个版本否定了母乳喂养是“索取”的先前概念,并将其确立为“给予”,不仅滋养了一个人的家庭,也滋养了一个人的自我,因为母亲们绕过了烹饪和食物准备的等级制度。最终,我揭示了女性身体与以食物为基础的劳动系统之间的联系,并通过母乳喂养的叙事实例揭示了摆脱这种联系的文学方法。
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