政治消化不良：司摩利特以不良食物隱喻其微型社會的失諧

驚世駭俗確實有奪人眼球的效果，所以廁所幽默往往能歷久彌新。司摩利特早期小說所採用的同款幽默，兩百多年後依然能震驚讀者。作者以諷刺的筆調揭露十八世紀英國的貪汙腐敗和不公不義，他所使用的廁所幽默便發揮很好的效果。為了達到這項目標，食物就成了理想的諷刺工具，因為他筆下的角色必須吞嚥難以入口的東西，不論是實體上或象徵意義上都屬難以下嚥。此外，大眾媒體經常拿食物暗喻貪污，這一點使得廣泛的讀者群都能夠理解司摩利特小說中關於食品的諷刺。本文的重心放在司摩利特第一本小說裡描寫的船員，以及第二本小說裡的壯遊團體，這兩者都有飲食方面的問題。本文主旨是呈現司摩利特如何技巧高妙的運用食物，來反映喬治亞時代英國的緊張與失諧，同時盡可能吸引眾多讀者群的青睞。司摩利特也藉由這種方式吸納過去被諷刺文學排除在外的讀者，爭取到更多人閱讀。  Eric Idle confessed in a recent documentary to a certain pride that the character of Mr. Creosote remains “offensive” and “gross” for audiences thirty years after the release of The Meaning of Life. Tobias Smollett’s notorious exercise in scatology in his novel Peregrine Pickle, “The Feast of the Ancients,” retains its shock value over two hundred years later. Scatological humor of this ilk surpasses the desire only to shock as an end in itself, which suffers from rapidly diminishing returns. In Juvenalian tradition, it exposes varying degrees of corruption and injustice in the starkest and most visceral way, losing little impact over time. Food is the ideal vehicle for Smollett; characters must swallow realities which are hard to stomach, literally as well as physically. This paper focusses on Tobias Smollett’s varying metaphorical uses of degraded and degrading food as literary shorthand for imbalances in power and conflicts between stakeholders in societies in miniature, which are a noteworthy feature of the Smollett novel. This paper will focus mainly, though not exclusively, on the ship’s company in Roderick Random who fight for palatable rations, and the band of would-be Grand Tourists in Peregrine Pickle, who struggle to keep down a classically-inspired meal. It aims to show how Smollett utilizes food to literary and sociopolitical effect, reflecting perceived sources of discord in the Georgian state and the popular artistic and intellectual Enlightenment, respectively.