Ninth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

Food customs and food culture evokes plenty of associations in different writers’ mind, not only through a peculiar sense of smell and taste but food can be perceived through other senses as well. It helps evoke memories and feelings related to self and the other. Food, therefore, plays a symbolic role in bringing forth complex psychological dilemmas, questions related to self and body. The novels Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai, Edible Woman by Margret Atwood, The Vegetarian by Hang Kang, explore these ideas related to identity through the metaphor of food. Following novels are set in India,United States of America, Canada and Seoul respectively, but these novels explore women as feminine subjects who are constantly trying to come to terms with their body and identity with respect to their culture. These writers use food imagery and metaphors to reveal personal identity struggles, as a form of frustrations and secret fears. Hence, eating can be seen as both necessity and pleasure. In this paper, I desire to map the relationship between food, body, and culture. Also, explore how food acts as a cultural signifier and a reflection of what people feel and how they relate to each other and their culture. Female fat, thinness and even consumption of food have always been a subject of public passion because women’s bodies are capitalist society’s obsession, a symbol of social worth and their identity stereotyped in a form is monumental for the patriarchal society’s normative functioning.