IDENTITIES AT THE DINNER TABLE: COMMENSALITY, SELF-PERCEPTION, AND RELATIONSHIPS IN ANNE CHERIANS A GOOD INDIAN WIFE
commensality; food; food culture; identity; migration
Food studies is rapidly gaining ground as a multidisciplinary area of research. Within it, literary food studies brings an interdisciplinary perspective as works of literature are viewed through the lens of food that is informed by frameworks and concepts that are rooted in a variety of fields including cultural anthropology, sociology, and more. one such concept that is in focus here is that of commensality that is associated with food and food practices. Commensality, drawing from notions of conviviality, refers to the practice of sharing a table and consuming food together. Deeper meanings of communal identities come to the fore in this social practice, leading it to shape how identities are understood and projected. Commensality can be a complex site of belonging and alienation depending on the context, and this paper seeks to explore the representation of the same in Anne Cherians A Good Indian Wife (2008). Leila, the titular Indian wife in the novel, moves to the US from India after her marriage to Neel and grapples with finding her place in the foreign land. With this displacement comes the endeavor to reaffirm her new identity, which now includes the role of being a wife and the aspect of being an immigrant. Neel also deals with complicated feelings towards the projection of his identity. With food playing a crucial role in the everyday experiences of their lives, commensality becomes a point of enquiry into how they see themselves and how their relationships with each other and themselves evolve through the course of the narrative. 2024 Nayana George.
Studies in Linguistics, Culture and FLT, Vol-12, No. 3, pp. 154-169.
Konstantin Preslavsky University of Shumen
https://doi.org/10.46687/DRAZ7186 https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85213694459&doi=10.46687%2fDRAZ7186&partnerID=40&md5=61291e62049d9848ecbe46cdf5339b76
George N., Christ University, Bengaluru, India