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

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2006 in the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: NONE, - (Pondicherry University), course: M.Phil in English, language: English, comment: First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my guide Dr. H. Kaplana, for her soft spoken guidance and patience. I am very much thankful for her sincere and her gentle way of guidance which made me to do an interesting and an important work. I also would like to thank Dr. N. Natarajan, the Head of the Department of English and other faculty members Dr. Sujatha Vijayaraghavan, Dr. S. Murali. I also would like to thank the Pondicherry University Library Staff and Computer Centre Staff and English Department Office Staff for their help. , 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. I