Food is a Love Language: An Analysis of Connection and Desire in Stir-Fry

Abstract

This paper aims at analysing the Irish contemporary novel Stir-fry (1994), written by Emma Donoghue. The story is set in rural Ireland in the early 1990s, and this study focusses on how food, and the room of the kitchen, is used throughout the novel as a way to represent the emotional connections between the characters as well as the sexual awakening of the main character, Maria. The parallels between Maria’s relationship with food and the kitchen back at her original home in opposition to her new home in Dublin help create an understanding of how the character changes perspective on society and her own sexuality, exploring her new Self away from suffocating expectations and prejudices imposed by a highly religious, misogynistic and homophobic society.