The Table is Laid: The Oxford Anthology of South Asian Food Writing (Oxford India Collection)

This anthology of writings on food brings together a wide range of literary and non-literary texts from South Asia. It draws on writing in English from the subcontinent, as well as the diaspora and includes extracts from works by V.S. Naipaul, Romesh Gunesekera, Salman Rushdie, Sara Suleri, Kamila Shamsie, Githa Hariharan, and Kiran Desai, among others, alongside translations from regional Indian languages. The volume covers a broad range of areas of interest: scholarly, narrative, philosophical, literary, anthropological, and cultural.

The recent interest in literary representations of food dwells on the idea that not only is eating the most basic of human activities, but also a major marker of social, cultural, and psychic identity. Food is an integral way in which individuals perceive themselves, and are perceived by others, resulting in stereotyping, as well as providing a means of self-determination. This volume will appeal to general readers, as well as students and scholars of literature and cultural studies.