Vartika Pandey

Prof. Simi Malhotra

Introduction to Literary Theory
24 April 2019
Title: Food and Literature

Eating as an activity is intimate and satisfying. It is a fundamental human activity, and

meals, cuisines and food habits prove to be an essential part for an insight into any social
system. As an act that demands our utmost pleasure and attention, it finds reflection in
the representation of man and his life in literature. The pleasure of reading about what
others eat and drink is similar to being fed or to have a taste in the mouth, to say the least.
It is used widely in children’s literature and women writings. Diasporic writers also
engage with the topic of food to deal with memory and nostalgia. Food functions as a
symbol of certain cultural concerns, including individual and group/ethnic identity,
highlighting issues of heritage and lineage and concerns with collective memory,
homelands, and war and conflict.

Description of food and meals is not new to literature. As a part of our basic everyday
life, it finds its representation in literature. We enjoy contemplating what others consume
when it is close to what we eat and drink ourselves. Children salivate to the picnic
lunches ‘The Famous Five’ packed- “Ham, sandwiches, potted meat sandwiches, cheese
and tomato sandwiches, fruit cake, hard boiled eggs with a screw of salt apples and
lemonade” made us drool and we could taste them in our own mouths.
Food-related images in the theater is very essential to drama on stage, commonly used to
create a mood or convey an idea. Shakespeare is known for cooking up conflicts around
meal tables. It's a good excuse for the playwright to get a lot of people onstage at the
same time, to bring friend and stranger together, and to do it all in an enclosed space
where the characters have no choice but to talk and interact. And create dramatic tension.
Which is exactly what Shakespeare serves us in the banquet scene in Macbeth. But then
he suffers from a panic attack and starts hallucinating. Macbeth sees the murdered
Banquo at the table and begins to talk to himself. Lady Macbeth pushes him to be a better
host, "complaining that his guests might as well have stayed at home” to have food by
themselves if he had to create the scene.

In comedies, meals tend to play a different role — they are the writer's tool to tie up
conflict by bringing everyone together at the table for a closing amiable meal or an
invitation to dine offstage. In Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’, all the characters settle
their feuds- couples get married, daughter meets father, the wicked is forgiven and all
ends well with a grand feast.

Eating habits and rituals, the choice of dining companions, and the reasons behind these
behaviors are fundamental to fostering an understanding of human society. Recent
psychoanalytic theory even goes to the extent of suggesting that eating practices are
essential to one’s self-identity and are instrumental in defining family, class, and even
ethnic identity. Although food and related imagery have long been part of literature,
psychological theories have led to the examination of food and eating as a universal
experience. Themes related to food are common among all types of writing, and they are
often used as a literary device for both visual and verbal impact.

Food is also a significant theme in literature by and about women and in children's
literature. A common setting related to food in children's literature is teatime. Usually
employed to dramatize states of harmony or disharmony, teatime is used to great effect in
such works as Lewis Carroll's ‘Alice’s adventures in Wonderland’, and Enid Blyton’s
novels. Come to think of it, one of my fondest memories of Blyton’s work was savoring
the snacks the Five packed for their lunches, so distinct yet enticing to one’s sense of
taste and imagination.

Dining rituals often provide a framework that both reflects and expresses human desires
and behaviors. Meal as a communion reflects the connection between people belonging
to the same culture or ethnicity. It reflects their similar tastes in food and eating habits
and thus bonds them together. In ‘When Mr. Pirzada came to dine’, the grown up Lilia
distinctly remembers her family meal times and finds it hard to gather how Mr. Pirzada
could belong to another country if all of them had the same eating habits- “They ate
pickled mangoes with their meals, ate rice every night for supper with their hands.”

Food and its related concerns with feminine identity and domesticity have been given a
central place in many works of women's literature. For many writers who address
women’s issues, the kitchen has symbolized the marginalization of women. It also goes
on to reflect how the burden of domesticity always falls on the woman of the house. In
‘Mr. Pirzada comes to dine’, the readers rarely see Lilia’s mother doing anything other
than preparing meals- “...from the kitchen my mother brought forth the succession of
dishes: lentils with fried onions, green beans with coconut, fish cooked with raisins in a
yogurt sauce. I followed with the water glasses, and the plate of lemon wedges, and the
chili peppers…” In contrast, however, many other women writers have used the
domesticity of women, as symbolized by the kitchen, as a vehicle for their creativity and
for promoting female solidarity. For example, authors such as Margaret Atwood have
used food and eating disorders to address issues of gender, language, and sexual politics,
as well as social dislocation. While some seem to consider women's confinement in the
kitchen limiting, others reclaim the kitchen as a private space, affirming it as a woman's
domain.