Confluence of Food, Culture, and Identity in Selected Novels of Manju Kapur

Abstract

The centrality of the familial space is a common aspect of Manju Kapur’s novels. Her projection of the complex terrain of the Indian family highlights the formation/disruption of the identity of her women protagonists. Focusing on familial issues, several contemporary writers have looked at the issues projecting the new Indian women in her changed circumstances. This paper aims to look at the metaphor of food present in the works of Kapur while connecting food and its preparation to the cultural environment and identity in her fictional space. The paper also looks at the kitchen as an important domain for women where various power plays are enacted. Food in Kapur’s novels opens up vistas of politics and power equations within the family. This paper takes up this particular issue and critically looks at Kapur’s depiction of food as a status symbol in various contexts. Attempt has been made to understand the way the author presents women’s intimate and yet universal relationship with food and the space in the kitchen and thus, place food as the central link between the individual’s identity and the cultural background.