Representation of Food: A Study of Margaret Atwood's "The Edible Woman" and Anita Desai's "Fasting, Feasting" (PDF)

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2006 in the subject Didactics - English - Literature, Works, grade: NONE, , course: M.Phil in English, language: English, abstract: ABSTRACT
REPRESENTATION OF FOOD: A STUDY OF MARGARET ATWOOD'S THE EDIBLE WOMAN AND
ANITA DESAI'S FASTING, FEASTING

The novels of Margaret Atwood and Anita Desai have a profound impact on the readers. The main aspect of their writing is to present/depict the condition of women in the patriarchal society. However Atwood's The Edible Woman and Anita Desai's Fasting, Feasting have innumerable images of food. In Atwood's case food becomes the source of power politics. This project aims to highlight how these writers have represented food and how it plays a major role in the life of an individual. The purpose of this dissertation is to expose how these two writers have given different meaning in their novels- The Edible Woman and Fasting, Feasting.

CHAPTER I: The first chapter, Introduction gives a general outline of the literatures of India and Canada and women's writing in 1960s. It gives a brief idea of cultural studies, and reflects on the use of food at different levels such as biological, sociological, psychological etc.

CHAPTER II: The second chapter focuses on Margaret Atwood's novel The Edible Woman. The chapter starts with a brief summary of the novel. It goes to review how food is used in the novel. It tries to explain how the protagonist in the novel reveals herself as a consumable and a consumed entity.

CHAPTER III: The third chapter begins with a brief summary of Anita Desai's novel Fasting, Feasting. It presents the utilization of food in the novel. Then it focuses on the interconnection of food and woman in the novel. The depiction of two different cultures of India and America is presented in the later half of the chapter.
CHAPTER IV: Conclusion highlights the important points of the previous chapter and sums up the analysis presented much of the novels The Edible Woman and Fasting, Feasting by Margaret Atwood and Anita Desai, respectively.