Eating and Identity in Postcolonial Fiction

Consuming Passions, Unpalatable Truths

Paul Vlitos

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9783319964416
• eBook ISBN:
  9783319964423
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

This book focuses on the fiction of four postcolonial authors: V.S. Naipaul, Anita Desai, Timothy Mo and Salman Rushdie. It argues that meals in their novels act as sites where the relationships between the individual subject and the social identities of race, class and gender are enacted. Drawing upon a variety of academic fields and disciplines — including postcolonial theory, historical research, food studies and recent attempts to rethink the concept of world literature — it dedicates a chapter to each author, tracing the literary, cultural and historical contexts in which their texts are located and exploring the ways in which food and the act of eating acquire meanings and how those meanings might clash, collide and be disputed. Not only does this book offer suggestive new readings of the work of its four key authors, but it challenges the reader to consider the significance of food in postcolonial fiction more generally.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Anita Desai

Fiction by Anita Desai (in Order of First Publication)

1. Cry, the Peacock (New Delhi: Orient Paperbacks, 1980). First published London: Peter Owen, 1963.
2. Voices in the City (New Delhi: Orient Paperbacks, 1995). First published London: Peter Owen, 1965.
3. Bye-Bye- Blackbird (Delhi: Vision Books, 1985). First published Delhi: Hind, 1971.
4. The Peacock Garden (London: Heinemann, 1979). First Published Bombay: India Book House, 1974.
5. Where Shall We Go This Summer? (Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1975).
6. Fire on the Mountain (London: Heinemann, 1977).
7. Games at Twilight (London: Heinemann, 1978).
8. Clear Light of Day (London: Vintage, 2001). First published London: Heinemann, 1980.
9. The Village by the Sea (London: Heinemann, 1982).
10. In Custody (London: Vintage, 1999). First published London: Heinemann, 1984.
11. Baumgartner’s Bombay (London: Chatto and Windus, 1988).
12. ‘Games at Twilight’, in The Vintage Book of Indian Writing 1947–1997 , ed. Salman Rushdie and Elizabeth West (London: Vintage, 1997), pp.121–9. First published in Games at Twilight (London: Heinemann, 1978), pp.1–10.
13. Scholar and Gypsy (London: Phoenix, 1996).
14. Journey to Ithaca (London: Vintage, 2001). First published London: Heinemann, 1995.
15. Fasting, Feasting (London: Chatto & Windus, 1999).
16. Diamond Dust and Other Stories (London: Vintage, 2001).
17. The Zigzag Way (London: Chatto and Windus, 2004).
18. The Artist of Disappearance (London: Chatto and Windus, 2011).

Selected Non-Fiction by Anita Desai

1. ‘A Coat of Many Colors’, in South Asian English: Structure, Use and Users , ed. Robert J. Baumgardner (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1996), pp.221–30.
2. ‘A Secret Connivance’, Times Literary Supplement , 14 September 1990, pp.972, 976.
3. ‘Indian Fiction Today’, Daedalus , 118.4 (Fall 1989), 207–31.
4. ‘Indian Women Writers’, in The Eye of the Beholder: Indian Writing m English , ed. Maggie Butcher (London: Commonwealth Institute, 1983), pp.54–8.
5. ‘Introduction’ to Rabindranath Tagore, in The Home and the World , trans. Surendranath Tagore (London: Penguin, 1995), pp.7–14.
6. ‘Introduction’ to Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children (London: Everyman, 1995), pp.vii–xxi.
7. ‘The Indian Writer’s Problems’, in Explorations in Modern Indo-English Fiction , ed. R.K. Dhawan (New Delhi: Bahri Publications, 1982), pp.223–6. First published in The Literary Criterion , 12 (Summer 1975), 26–36.
8. ‘The Rage for the Raj’, New Republic , 25 November 1985, pp.26–30.
9. ‘Where Cultures Clash by Night: Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie’, Washington Post , 15 March 1981, Book World, p.11.
10. ‘Words for Salman Rushdie’, New Statesman and Society , 31 March 1989, p.25.

Timothy Mo

Novels by Timothy Mo (in Order of First Publication)

1. The Monkey King (London: Abacus, 1984). First published London: Deutsche, 1978.
2. Sour Sweet (London: Deutsch, 1982).
3. Sour Sweet , TextPlus edn, int. David Yip, notes by Andrew Spicer (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1990).
4. An Insular Possession (London: Chatto and Windus, 1986).
5. The Redundancy of Courage (London: Chatto and Windus, 1991).
6. Brownout on Breadfruit Boulevard (London: Paddleless, 1995).
7. Renegade or Halo ² (London: Paddleless, 2000). First published London: Paddleless, 1999.
8. Pure (London: Turnaround Books, 2012).

Selected Non-Fiction by Timothy Mo

1. ‘China: Two Thrillers on the Great Leap Backwards’, Sunday Times , 17 September 1978, p.41.
2. ‘Fighting Their Writing’, in New Writing 5, ed. Christopher Hope and Peter Porter (London: Vintage in Association with the British Council, 1996), pp.299–318.
3. ‘File Under Nuts’, Independent , 8 May 1993, p.29.
4. ‘From the Mines of Curry Powder’, New York Times Book Review , 28 February 1988, p.14.
5. ‘They Will Not Apologise’, Daily Telegraph , 7 March 1998, Weekend Section, p.15.
6. ‘Why Can’t They Write Better Novels?’, Spectator , 6 January 1996, pp.23–4.

V.S. Naipaul

V.S. Naipaul: Fiction (in Order of First Publication)

1. The Mystic Masseur , int. Paul Edwards and Gordon Rohlehr (London: Heinemann, 1971). First published London: Deutsch, 1957.
2. The Suffrage of Elvira (London: Deutsch, 1958).
3. Miguel Street (London: Penguin, 1971). First published London: Deutsch, 1959.
4. A House for Mr Biswas , int. Ian Buruma (London: Penguin, 1992). First published London: Deutsch, 1961.
5. Mr Stone and the Knights Companion (London: Deutsch, 1963).
6. The Mimic Men (London: Picador, 2002). First published London: Deutsche, 1967.
7. A Flag on the Island (London: Deutsch, 1967).
8. In a Free State (London: Picador, 2002). First published London: Deutsch, 1971.
9. Guerrillas (London: Vintage, 1990). First published London: Deutsch, 1975.
10. A Bend in the River (London: Vintage, 1989). First published London: Deutsch, 1979.
11. The Enigma of Arrival (London: Viking, 1987...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• Introduction: Ways of Reading a Meal
• ‘Our Little Bastard World’: Food, History, and Identity in the Novels of V.S. Naipaul
• ‘It Was Actually Wonderful to See What Fertile Ground the Dining Table Was for Discussion and Debate’: Food, Gender, and Culture in the Novels of Anita Desai
• Stereotypes, Family Values, and Chop Suey: Food, Authority, and Authenticity in the Novels of Timothy Mo
• The Chutnification of History and the Limits of Gastronomic Pluralism: Food, Identity, and the Commodification of Culture in the Novels of Salman Rushdie
• Conclusion
• Correction to: Stereotypes, Family Values, and Chop Suey: Food, Authority, and Authenticity in the Novels of Timothy Mo
• Back Matter