Abstract:

I explore the heuristic potential of food in the 2008 Anglophone Lebanese novel A Girl Made of Dust by Nathalie Abi-Ezzi. I do so by tracing the cognitive and emotional developments of the eight-year-old child narrator as she moves from magical to logical thinking during the 1975–1990 Lebanese Civil War. My examination lies at the intersection of two disciplines: developmental psychology and literary code-switching. I argue that when Arabic food words are read both in context and in conjunction with food items named in English, they foreshadow key plot elements—including specific aspects of death and dying, but also of life and rebirth—as the child tries to come to terms with traumatizing acts of violence. Thus, these code-switches serve both narratological and epistemological functions. My close reading is informed by both foundational and recent theories in cognitive psychology, as well as by both classical and contemporary anthropological examinations of food. The theoretical implication of my reading is that minimal code-switching, whether restricted in number and/or in type, does not necessarily showcase shallow multilingualism.

摘要：

我在2008年黎巴嫩英语小说《尘土飞扬的女孩》中探讨了食物的启发性潜力娜塔莉·阿比·埃齐（Nathalie Abi-Ezzi）的作品。通过追踪这名八岁儿童叙述者在1975-1990年黎巴嫩内战期间从魔术思维转变为逻辑思维时的认知和情感发展，我可以做到这一点。我的考试位于两个学科的交汇处：发展心理学和文学代码转换。我认为，当在上下文中以及与以英语命名的食品一起阅读阿拉伯食物单词时，它们预示了关键的情节要素，包括死亡和垂死的特定方面，以及生命和重生的特定方面，因为孩子试图走向带有破坏性的暴力行为的用语。因此，这些代码开关兼具叙事和认识论的功能。我的近距离阅读来自认知心理学的基础理论和最新理论，以及古典和现代人类食物学研究。我的读物的理论含义是，无论数量和/或类型受到限制，最少的代码切换都不一定会表现出浅薄的多语言能力。