Culinary Images and Identity

The present study analyzes culinary images in the selected writings of the three diasporic Indian writers settled in America, viz. Bharati Mukherjee, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Jhumpa Lahiri. The selected works abound in food images and highlight the expatriate/immigrant experience in America. The central characters of almost all the texts are women who respond to immigration through cookery and food consumption. The immigrant life is beleaguered with dichotomies of inside-oustside, east-west and past-present and this study proves that these bipolarities are displayed and resolved through food images. It also delves into the bipolar world of the diasporic Indian community settled in America and insists that the repeated rendering of indigenous food preparation enables the community to reaffirm its identity and fight against cultural homogenization. This study does not draw parallels between the three writers and the food images they employ, but explores the diverse ways these writers capture the identity formation of their characters through food.