Food, War and National Identity in Almudena Grandes' Inés y la alegría

Abstract

Almudena Grandes’ novel Inés y la alegría offers the reader a unique view into the world of Spanish exiles struggling to regain control of Spain in 1944 and at the same time yearning to recuperate their sense of identity as Spaniards. Grandes accomplishes the latter task by developing a subplot focused on food, the kitchen, cooking and eating. She places Inés at the centre of the action as cook to a contingent of soldiers that form the first wave of invasion in the Valle de Arán. Inés assumes a maternal role as cook, providing the soldiers with both physical and emotional sustenance. This study examines the way that Grandes manipulates the kitchen, food, cooking and eating to create an environment that counters the exiles’ sense of ‘foreignness’ and replaces it with a sense of belonging and identity. However, Grandes unravels her own thesis to reveal the deceptiveness of an identity founded on geopolitical boundaries and cultural practices. Food, with all of its external cultural and social implications, pales in comparison to the personal sense of worth and identity that defines a person as Spaniard.