Adults often find surprising subtexts in children's literature – but are they really there? Hephzibah Anderson delves into the world of Freud and fairy tales.
成年人經(jīng)常能在兒童讀物中發(fā)現(xiàn)令人意想不到的潛臺(tái)詞——但這些潛臺(tái)詞真的存在嗎？赫弗齊芭?安德森深入探究了弗洛伊德理論和童話世界。

As a child many of my favourite books had food as a theme. One in particular told the story of a boy who helped save his local burger bar by becoming a gastro-sleuth to track down a lost secret ingredient.
小時(shí)候，我最喜歡看的是以食物為主題的書。令我印象尤為深刻的一個(gè)故事是：有一個(gè)小男孩為了拯救當(dāng)?shù)氐臐h堡店，從而化身為“味覺(jué)偵探”去尋找遺失的秘方。

Long after losing track of the book and forgetting its title, I found myself in Edinburgh to interview Alexander McCall Smith. He was already the mega-selling author of The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, but years earlier, he had published a few children's books. There among them on a shelf was The Perfect Hamburger.
很多年過(guò)去了，書已經(jīng)找不到了，甚至連書名也已記不清。直到我去愛(ài)丁堡拜訪亞歷山大·考爾史密斯。那時(shí)他已經(jīng)憑著《第一女子偵探事務(wù)所》系列小說(shuō)成為了超級(jí)暢銷作家，但早年，他也出版過(guò)一些兒童書籍。這些書籍在他的書架上放著，其中有一本就是《一個(gè)完美的漢堡》。

It was my book. Except that it wasn't – not really. While burgers do indeed feature in lip-smacking detail, this time it was clear to me that The Perfect Hamburger is actually a tale of corporate greed and the fate of small businesses forced to compete with big chains.
這就是我說(shuō)的那本小說(shuō)。其實(shí)不是——至少不完全是。小時(shí)候我覺(jué)得這是一個(gè)關(guān)于美味的漢堡的故事，而如今我再次讀它，看到的卻是一個(gè)大企業(yè)的貪婪以及小企業(yè)被迫同大型連鎖店競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的悲慘命運(yùn)。

Revisiting kids' books in adulthood can yield all sorts of weird and wonderful subtexts, some more obvious than others. How could Dr Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas be anything other than a parable of consumerism? Why would it not seem blindingly clear that CS Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia are in fact a fantastical re-imagining of Christian theology?
成年人重讀兒童讀物總會(huì)衍生出很多奇特的潛臺(tái)詞，而且有的尤其明顯。蘇斯博士的《圣誕怪杰》其實(shí)是一個(gè)消費(fèi)主義的預(yù)言。而C.S.路易斯的《納尼亞傳奇》實(shí)際上是一個(gè)關(guān)于基督教神學(xué)的神奇重構(gòu)。

Similar close readings have rendered the Paddington Bear books fables about immigration and Babar the Elephant an endorsement of French colonialism. Alice's Wonderland adventures have been seen as everything from a paean to mathematical logic to a satire about the War of the Roses or a trippy caper with drugs as an underlying theme.
同樣地，當(dāng)你重新細(xì)讀《小熊帕丁頓》系列叢書時(shí)，你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)，這是關(guān)于移民問(wèn)題的寓言，而《大象巴巴》則是對(duì)法國(guó)殖民主義的認(rèn)可。《愛(ài)麗絲夢(mèng)游仙境》的再讀便會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)小說(shuō)是從“對(duì)數(shù)理邏輯的贊歌”，到“玫瑰戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)的諷刺”，再到“以毒品為潛在主題的迷幻劇”。

And what about The Little Engine That Could? You might know it as a story about trains that fosters can-do optimism, but it has also been taken as a you-go-girl feminist tale. (The eponymous little engine is a lady train and when she breaks down, only another female train will stop to help out.) As for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: why, it's an allegorical representation of the debate surrounding late 19th Century US monetary policy, of course.
那么《小火車頭做到了》呢？你可能會(huì)認(rèn)為這是一本能夠培養(yǎng)積極進(jìn)取的樂(lè)觀精神的小火車頭歷險(xiǎn)故事。但它也是一個(gè)宣揚(yáng)女權(quán)主義的故事。（故事中同名的小火車頭是一個(gè)女孩形象，而且當(dāng)她遇到故障時(shí)，只有另一輛女性火車停下來(lái)幫助她。）至于《綠野仙蹤》，它就美國(guó)十九世紀(jì)后期貨幣政策的大爭(zhēng)論進(jìn)行了寓言式的描述。

（來(lái)源：滬江英語(yǔ) 編輯：丁一）