REVELLING IN FOOD: An Ecofeminist Reading of Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman

摘要

Margaret Atwood’s debut novel The Edible Woman follows protagonist MarianMacAlpin’s life over the span of a few months, through her engagement to, and subsequentbreakup from, Peter Wollander. There are references to food on almost every page, and therelationship between women and food in particular has been extensively analysed by feministcritics of the novel. Typically, this feminist criticism has interpreted the protagonist’srejection of food, particularly meat and other animal products, as symptomatic of anorexia.However, this criticism has assumed a dominant discourse of meat and failed to see thepositive aspects of Marian’s increasingly vegetarian diet. Furthermore, by focusing either onMarian’s rejection of food or the edible woman cake, other more subtle food references areoverlooked. This essay explores those seemingly insignificant mentions in order to betterunderstand Marian’s emotional state and ideals, and the ideals of the time in which the novelis set. In addition to this, it examines Marian’s rejection of food from an ecofeministperspective, with the aim of revealing a positive interpretation.