波特圖畫書中的社區生活

The Neighborhood in Beatrix Potter’s Picture Books

碧雅翠絲．波特(Helen Beatrix Potter)自1901 年自費出版第一本圖畫小書，畢生出版的二十三本圖畫書至今依然暢銷全球。筆者認為波特不僅本身是一位日常生活實踐者，她筆下的故事也與日常生活、社區互動息息相關。本文撰寫之際適逢波特一百五十歲誕辰（2016 年），因此將從日常生活角度窺探其作品中的社區生活，以為紀念。本文以法國文化研究學者德賽托(Michel de Certeau)的日常生活研究作為理論架構，其中，德賽托及其研究團隊成員梅約、姬雅德共同撰寫之《日常生活實踐第二輯：作息與做菜》更是闡發重點。根據德賽托團隊對於日常生活的省思與觀察，社區乃日常生活不可或缺的環節。人們對於社會環境的掌握來自社區，而社區空間的日常生活實踐，也就是以迂迴方式漸次將此公共空間變成個人的特殊空間。本論文以波特圖畫書中描寫商店的《金傑與皮克的故事》、描寫女性備餐的《餡餅和餅模的故事》，以及描寫應付不速之客的《鼠太太小不點的故事》三本作品為例，檢視書中社區生活體現的日常生活詩學；亦即，社區空間隱含哪些合宜的行為舉止？書中角色又如何在不公然違反社會規範的狀況下進行社區空間的挪用，將社區空間個人化與特殊化？運用的技倆與戰術為何？而這些挪用又能為社區居民帶來哪些「預期的象徵利益」？

Ever since Beatrix Potter printed her first little picture book in 1901, all of thetwenty-three books she has published in her life time are still embraced by today’sreaders. Inspired by Michel de Certeau’s everyday life theory, this paper treats BeatrixPotter, a self-taught female writer/illustrator growing up the Victorian era, as a consumerof everyday life, and reads her stories as concerning largely with ordinary culture andneighborhood. To mark the 150th anniversary of Potter’s birthday (2016) and tocommemorate her contribution to the world of children’s literature, this paper exploreshow Potter depicts the experience of living in a neighborhood by examining the everydaylife practices in her works. This paper draws on the everyday life research that the Frenchscholar Michel de Certeau and his colleagues Pierre Mayol and Luce Giard developed.According to these researchers’ investigation of private practices in living, such asdwelling, cooking, and homemaking, the neighborhood is by definition a mastery of thesocial environment. It is an area of public space in general which a private, particularspace gradually insinuates itself into as a result of the practical, everyday use of thisspace. Potter’s works discussed in this paper include The Tale of Gingers and Pickles,which concerns the interaction between shopkeepers and their customers, The Tale of Pieand the Patty-Pan, which accounts a female character’s preparation of an afternoon teaparty, and The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse, a story that tells how a desperate hostess gets ridof uninvited guests. Through examining the propriety embedded in the neighborhood, howneighbors appropriate and privatize the public space, the ruses and tactics involved, and the expected symbolic benefits, the paper hopes to highlight the poetics of everyday life inBeatrix Potter’s picture books.