In Chinelo Okparanta’s short story “Marta,” published in Tin House in 2013, readers discover an activist imagination engaged with the fluid connections between immigration, ecology, and the body. The story features a set of Nigerian characters conflicted over their desire for US culture and commodities who struggle to reconcile impressions of both prosperity and decay. “Marta” describes a group of six child grave robbers and the immigration stories they conjure about the titular victim. The children carry out their sordid work in a cemetery marked by disfigured “concrete slabs” that fill with water (139). The greatest prizes are jewelry and clothing of US origin or that which is found on those who returned from abroad: “I snatch [the earrings]. Everyone knows they are mine. ‘Maybe they are made in America?’ I ask” (147). Seen from the graveyard, the United States is a place that produces materials that titillate and pollute. “Marta” goes on to examine the forms of perverse embodiment that happen at intersections of decay and commodity culture via a magical tale of courtship and marriage. According to one of the child storytellers, a young Marta discovers she has been tricked by a suitor’s beauty when the limbs and facial features he has “borrowed” drop away during the journey to his village (144). Newly married, Marta finds that the inhabitants of the village plan to dismember and eat her. Most obviously a cautionary tale for the aspiring immigrant, Marta’s adventure also mirrors the children’s plan to borrow from corpses to make their bodies more alluring. Still, the narrator wagers it is preferable to borrow than to immigrate: “‘Better we don’t go to America and become something other than ourselves,’ Chika says. ‘Better this way, when America comes to us’” (147). Even this wager seems problematic since, when asked by their parents, the children will not confess to the source of their plunder. Thus, they end with an appearance that is not entirely their own, having shamefully inherited another nation’s waste. As the children excavate for the buried baubles that signify US glamor, their movements plainly mimic agricultural gestures. They dig into the ground as proto-farmers preparing to plant seeds, but they instead draw out the bodies

中文翻译：

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非移民叙事的非殖民化：Chinelo Okparanta的“美国”中的酷儿生态

在Chinelo Okparanta的短篇小说《玛塔》（2013年在锡之家出版）中，读者发现了激进主义者的想象力，与移民，生态和身体之间的流体联系紧密相关。故事讲述了一组尼日利亚人物因对美国文化和商品的渴望而发生冲突，他们难以调和繁荣与衰败的印象。“玛塔”描述了一群六名抢劫儿童的小偷，以及他们为名誉受害者而想到的移民故事。孩子们在一个墓地里进行肮脏的工作，该墓地标有毁坏的“混凝土楼板”，里面装满了水（139）。最高的奖品是美国产的珠宝和服装，或者是从国外归国的人发现的珠宝和服装：“我抢了[耳环]。每个人都知道他们是我的。“也许它们是美国制造的？” 我问”（147）。从墓地看，美国是生产产生滴滴涕和污染物质的地方。“玛塔”继续通过一个关于求爱和婚姻的神奇故事，研究在腐朽和商品文化的交汇处发生的反常体现的形式。根据其中一位儿童故事讲述者的说法，一位年轻的玛塔（Marta）发现，当他“借”的四肢和面部特征在去村里的旅途中掉落时，她被追求者的美丽所迷惑（144）。玛塔刚结婚，发现该村的居民打算肢解并吃掉她。最明显的是对于有抱负的移民来说，这是一个警示性的故事，玛塔的冒险经历也反映了孩子们从尸体那里借钱以使他们的身体更诱人的计划。叙述者仍然认为，借钱比移民更可取：奇卡说：“'我们最好不要去美国，成为自己以外的东西。' “以这种方式，当美国来到我们身边时”（147）。即使下注也是有问题的，因为在父母的要求下，孩子们不会坦白其掠夺的根源。因此，他们以可耻地继承了另一个国家的废物而出现的不完全是自己的模样。当孩子们挖掘象征美国魅力的小玩意时，他们的动作明显模仿了农业姿态。当原始农民准备种下种子时，他们会挖到地下，但他们会抽出尸体 他们以可耻地继承了另一个国家的废物而出现的不完全是自己的模样。当孩子们挖掘象征美国魅力的小玩意时，他们的动作明显模仿了农业姿态。当原始农民准备种下种子时，他们会挖到地下，但他们会抽出尸体 他们以可耻地继承了另一个国家的废物而出现的不完全是自己的模样。当孩子们挖掘象征美国魅力的小玩意时，他们的动作明显模仿了农业姿态。当原始农民准备种下种子时，他们挖了地下，但取而代之的是抽出尸体