The erotics of consumption in postmodern culinary narratives, a look at Like water for chocolate and Reckless appetites

Abstract

This study examines gender relations in postmodern culinary narratives. Laura Esquivel's 'Like Water for Chocolate' and Jaqueline Deval's 'Reckless Appetites' serve as the primary texts; however, Gail-Anderson Dargatz's 'The Cure for Death by Lightning ' and John Lanchester's 'The Debt to Pleasure' also receive brief attention. Since there is little literary scholarship on these texts, I assume an inter disciplinary approach to them, seeking to draw out their significance in a larger context. It soon became apparent that in order to understand the importance of the culinary narrative in relation to postmodern literature, issues of genre and feminist theory had to be taken into consideration. As the recipe is central to the culinary narrative, a study of both its history in cookbook form and its literary importance also figures in the analysis. The culinary narrative, which commonly features stories of romance, is an important new genre, currently in development. The following document examines this genre and its implications for feminist writing.