Abstract
This article examines the conflicts experienced by the protagonists of 26a (2005) by British-Nigerian Diana Evans and The Vegetarian (2007) by South Korean Han Kang, which are related to patriarchal violence and reflected in their changing dietary habits, ranging from vegetarianism to starvation. Their changes in food practices are interpreted from feminist, food studies, and ecocritical perspectives as stemming from their rebellion against patriarchal abuse and sharing important connections with the natural world, also a traditional object of male dominance and domestication, which are emphasised through frequent references to trees, flowers and fruit.
Highlights
Studies of food, consumption and gender often consider cooking a source of power for women due to its symbolic importance (Sceats 2003; Adolph 2009)
Starving Spirits 15-41 often than not, food practices uncover the patriarchal imposition which forces women to remain in the domestic sphere, and which essentially translates as their exclusion from the public domain
Food consumption and food practices have served as a vehicle for some contemporary female authors to criticize traditional gender roles
Summary
Consumption and gender often consider cooking a source of power for women due to its symbolic importance (Sceats 2003; Adolph 2009). more
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