Culinary Inclinations as a Reflection of Identity in Joanne Harris’s ‘Chocolat’

“Tell me what you eat, I’ll tell you what you are.” : Brillat-Savarin. Literature has always been the mode of reflecting human psyche representing the language of people’s culture and traditions. The culture of food is age old and it shapes the individuals as well as a society’s culture. Complex human issues have been analysed using food images on a metaphoric level to represent cultural identities. Importance of food in literature and the role it played in gender studies asserting women’s suppressed individuality and identity is an upcoming area of study. Apart from observing that women are reduced as a kitchen maker, in today’s society kitchen and cooking are a means of expressing one’s identity before the world and is well expressed in various literary forms. Food and its related concerns with feminine identity and domesticity patriarchal oppression, and repressed sexual desire. have been given a central place in many works of women’s literature. One such English writer who used culinary art in her work is Joanne Harris who’s novel Chocolat deals with the magical powers of chocolate and how it works on the people of a particular town attacking the cultural and traditional beliefs of that place rewriting a cultural identity.

The Mysteries of Food: Reading Select Detective Fiction by Kalpana Swaminathan and Madhumita Bhattacharyya

Food studies, a new addition to the family of humanities, has experienced a rapid rise in the last twenty years and a number of scholars have devoted their time and energy in studying food culture as well as the patterns of eating (Albala, 2013). Food writing has slowly spread its branches into all literary genres including into crime fiction. In more recent crime mysteries, the main plot is supplemented by authentic recipes and descriptions of food and cooking and “gumshoes not only track killers” but also “grill sherry-flavoured tuna” or “bake” chocolate cookies (Carvajal, 1997). The sub-genre of crime fiction that brings together food and crime, has been termed as ‘culinary mystery’ and with the more recent academic interest in food in literature, it has received the critical attention it deserves. The present paper will analyze the role of food in the Reema Ray mysteries of Madhumita Bhattacharyya, The Masala Murder (2012) and Dead in a Mumbai Minute (2014) and the Lalli mysteries of Kalpana Swaminathan, The Secret Gardener (2013) and Page 3 Murders (2006). While for Lalli and her niece Sita, food becomes a luxury, an indulgenceafter a hard day’s grim investigative work; for Reema, baking is her sleuthing tool and stands for her intelligence and autonomy. This paper will thus argue how these novels, with female sleuths who use food/cooking as tools of detection, pose a challenge to the patriarchal roles assigned to women as caregivers and providers of nutrition, and attempt to show how “food mysteries are ultimately about female independence and sustaining the self” (Kalikoff, 2006, p. 75). In doing this, it will alsofocus on how women bridge the gap between the public and private spheres.

Global South Korea in 21st-Century Asian American Literature

Since the start of the 21st-century, a general consensus has emerged that South Korea is a “global” phenomenon. Growing references to celebrated aspects of Korean culture and society—such as K-pop or Korean food—in literature, television, video, and film index a perceptual shift regarding South Korea. However, Korean American literature has tirelessly interrogated Korea’s place in the world, tracing and exposing often elided links and histories upon which its current prominence depends. Attending to Korean American and a growing spectrum of Asian American literary imaginations of South Korea in the 21st century illustrates the particularity of the nation’s curious global presence. Doing so also allows for an examination of the fissures between the perception and reality of global South Korea, of current assumptions about globalization, and of non-US-centric sites of affiliations notable in Asian American literature. Writers including Jimin Han, Patricia Park, Krys Lee, Jane Jeong Trenka, Maurene Goo, and May Lee-Yang exhibit divergent patterns and approaches and together highlight multiple facets of the structural entanglements that comprise global South Korea. These include changing patterns and motives for migration to and from Korea; redefining “Koreanness”; the complexities of “globalization,” and the oft-celebrated Korean Wave, or hallyu.

The translation of food in literature: A culinary journey through time and genres

Studying the translation of cultural elements has been one of the most interesting subjects in Translation Studies since the mid-1980s, as it often marks the limits of translatability and reveals not only specific translational strategies but also the attitude of the different agents, i. e., the translator, the editor, and the reader, and of society in general, towards the other or the foreign. Among all cultural elements, the translation of food holds a special position, as it has always been one of the most common extralinguistic elements in literature, which constitutes an important marker of everyday life in the source culture often not having a proper equivalent in the target language. The data gathered in this article show several trends in the translation of food lexicon into different languages since the eighteenth century, including various genres – from the ancient classics up to children’s or criminal literature. We will point out how, examining the translation techniques, it is possible to identify the dominant theoretical approaches according to the function of the texts as well as to their historical and sociopolitical context.

Mediterranean diet: not only food

The proposal of a Mediterranean way of life is much more than advise how to eat. The Mediterranean Diet, a model of Sustainable Diet, is an example of how to combine personal choices, economic, social and cultural rights, protective of human health and the ecosystem. There is in fact fundamental interdependence between dietary requirements, nutritional recommendations, production and consumption of food. In literature studies and nutritional and epidemiological monitoring activities at national and international level have found a lack of adherence to this lifestyle, due to the spread of the economy, lifestyles of the Western type and globalization of the production and consumption. To encourage the spread of a culture and a constant practice of the Mediterranean Diet, there are some tools that are presented in this article. The Mediterranean Diet Pyramid in addition to the recommendations on the frequency and portions of food, focuses on the choice of how to cook and eat food. The “Double Food Pyramid” encourages conscious food choices based on “healthy eating and sustainability. All the nutrition professionals and dietitians in particular should be constantly striving to encourage the adoption of a sustainable and balanced nutrition.