摘 要

玛格丽特•米切尔的《飘》中充斥着大量和美国南方饮食相关的书写，展现了十九世纪下半叶美国南方文化。小说中的饮食描写不仅可以帮助区分美国南方社会不同社会阶层，也有助于刻画小说中的人物。因此，本文重点从作为南方文化再现的食物、作为社会分层标记的食物、作为人物刻画方式的食物等三方面分析小说中的饮食书写，旨在揭示一点：和饮食相关的书写不但大大增添了小说的艺术魅力，同时也体现了美国特定历史时期南方文化和种族、性别身份的深层互动。

关键词：玛格丽塔•米切尔；《飘》；饮食书写

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………1
2. Demonstration …………………………………........................................2
   1. Food as an embodiment of southern culture………………………………2
      1. Food writings related with Tara………………………………………..3
      2. Food writings related with Atlanta……………………………………..4
   2. Food as a social marker………………………………………......................6
      1. Food as the reflection of social strata…………………............................6
      2. Food as the reflection of gender oppression…………………………......8
   3. Food as a way of characterization……………...............................................9
      1. Strong alcohol and lustful Rhett………………………….........................9
      2. Flexible buckwheat and practical Scarlett…………………….................10
3. Conclusion…………………………………………………………................11

Works Cited……………………………………………………………………...13

Bibliography……………………………………………………………..............14

Culinary Writings in Gone with the Wind

1. Introduction

Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949) is one of the most famous American women writers in the American literature. Her popular novel Gone with the Wind has always been considered to be a convenient way for many readers to acquaint with both the Civil war and the Old South. Gone with the Wind was the sole-published novel of Margaret Mitchell, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1937. When the Great Depression still enveloped people's life in 1930s, Mitchell's book offered a shady business a sunny life. It obtained a warm welcome in the United States, generating a stir on the European continent. Even publishers in Demark, Germany and Sweden expressed a great interest in releasing translations. That was a rare event in those difficult days. John Marsh, Mitchell's husband once wondered if Gone with the Wind might "prove to be the new industry that will help to pull the nation out of the depression" (Mitchell Letters 52). Since its publication in 1936, Gone with the Wind has been under the focus of critics. There are a lot of comments and arguments about this noted novel with blended receptions. Most of the critics mainly focus on Margaret Mitchell's life and her novel Gone with the Wind, the female writings, and the interrelationship of gender, love, race and society.

In Gone with the Wind, Mitchell presents four distinct Southern viewpoints on life and war by the characterization of four characters. Scarlett, the protagonist of the story, was a headstrong girl who fought against the war and hunger while drifting with a brand new set of values from what she had been educated. Reviews about Gone with the Wind usually characterized Scarlett as the symbol of the greedy capitalistic spirit of the New South. Rhett, the leading male character, was a cynic towards the South and upper-class hypocrisy. Ashley, a landed gentleman and a slave owner, fought in the Civil War as a Confederate soldier for the Old South life. He was a dreamer who could not adjust himself to the realities of life and the new order after the war. Melanie, an ideal woman with virtues in Gone with the Wind, died after much suffering and adversities. She was deemed as a role model of the Old South.

The feminist theme of this novel often draws a lot of attentions of researchers. With the rise of Ecofeminist movement, more and more people probe into the novel from Ecofeminist perspective. However, studies on the culinary culture of the Old South presented in this novel, especially the exploration of the characters’ eating behavior and their restrained intake are relatively rare. Therefore, analyzing the culinary writings of this novel is comparatively a new attempt to approach the theme of it.