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.

中文翻译：

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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，还是它与依恋的象征性联系，都凸显了母亲形象既强大又屈从的地位。我在 Mahasweta Devi 的故事“Breast-Giver”中追溯了这种矛盾心理，探讨了女性的字面和隐喻饥饿，以及她们的孩子所经历的饥饿，认为母乳喂养通常是一种展示女性基于其家庭地位的身体限制的手段“喂食器。” 然而，我也主张母乳喂养比喻的一个深刻体现版本，它否定母乳喂养是一种“获取”的先前概念，并将其确立为一种“给予”，它不仅可以滋养家人，还可以滋养自己，因为母亲们会规避烹饪和食物准备的等级制度。最终，