The paper investigates the social and symbolic significance that hunger and food acquire in "The Famished Road", a novel in which aliments and dietary habits are troped pervasively. A figure of capitalistic greed in some episodes, food is also conceived as a powerful system of communication that revives―albeit momentarily―lost bonds of affection and belonging. On a spiritual plane, moreover, images of hunger and satiety come to symbolise the struggle between human resignation and amelioration involving all the characters. These overlapping meanings are deciphered by applying anthropological and cultural theories, such as those developed by Mary Douglas, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Roland Barthes and Mikhail Bakhtin.
Hunger and Food Metaphors in Ben Okri's "The Famished Road"
COSTANTINI, Mariaconcetta
2013-01-01
Abstract
The paper investigates the social and symbolic significance that hunger and food acquire in "The Famished Road", a novel in which aliments and dietary habits are troped pervasively. A figure of capitalistic greed in some episodes, food is also conceived as a powerful system of communication that revives―albeit momentarily―lost bonds of affection and belonging. On a spiritual plane, moreover, images of hunger and satiety come to symbolise the struggle between human resignation and amelioration involving all the characters. These overlapping meanings are deciphered by applying anthropological and cultural theories, such as those developed by Mary Douglas, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Roland Barthes and Mikhail Bakhtin.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
