The journey of food from ‘When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine’ to ‘Mrs. Sen's’ in Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies

Abstract

As a chronicler of cultural interface, in Jhumpa Lahiri's debut collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, food paradoxically establishes intertextuality, humanity, otherness, negotiation as well as respect, albeit in different contexts. This article tries to highlight how the highly acclaimed writer constantly underscores the politics of Bengali diaspora identity in her stories through multiple nuances of the food metaphor, highlighting the specificity of Bengali cuisine and eating etiquettes, by creating a subtle dialogue between the second and the sixth story of the collection. It intends to explore how the journey of the food metaphor from ‘When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine’ to ‘Mrs. Sen's’ works in a typical pattern of the deconstruction of hegemonic discourses, in the critique of the plight of Bengali diaspora women, in the reinterpretation of difference and, thereby, in the development of their Bengali immigrant identity.