Eating one's way through history: Food and Politics in Manuka Wijesinghe's Monsoons and Potholes

This paper consists of an analysis of Monsoons and Potholes (2006), the first novel by Sri Lankan playwright Manuka Wijesinghe. Attention is paid to the ways in which the text articulates relations between personal stories, food, history and politics. Food plays a central role in some novels publish...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Alonso Breto, Isabel
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/108988
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/108988
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Literatura
Sri Lanka
Literature
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spelling Eating one's way through history: Food and Politics in Manuka Wijesinghe's Monsoons and PotholesAlonso Breto, IsabelLiteraturaSri LankaLiteratureSri LankaThis paper consists of an analysis of Monsoons and Potholes (2006), the first novel by Sri Lankan playwright Manuka Wijesinghe. Attention is paid to the ways in which the text articulates relations between personal stories, food, history and politics. Food plays a central role in some novels published in the last years by Sri Lankan authors, as is the case, for instance, with Yasmine Gooneratne's A Change of Skies (1984) and Mary Ann Mohanraj's Bodies in Motion (2005). Both these works elaborate metaphors of identity through the dominant trope of food-encompassing cooking and the rituals of consumption. In Monsoons and Potholes, food accompanies and illustrates the autobiographical account of a Sri Lankan youngster born in the early 1960s, and revisits the first twenty years in her life together with the socio-political up and downs in her country. While it is a novel which to a great extent draws on metaphors of myth and history, scenes of food and eating appear consistently throughout the narration, which contribute in providing a down-to-earth (and highly satirical) version of the life of the Sinhala upper-middle classes during the period. These images of food (and the sets of rituals, beliefs and constrictions around it) are exploited by the author with the aim to explore, understand and denounce the historical process which precipitated Sri Lanka, at the beginning of the 1980s, "on the road to nowhere".Centre d'Estudis Australians2011info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/2445/108988Articles publicats en revistes (Llengües i Literatures Modernes i Estudis Anglesos)reponame:Dipòsit Digital de la UBinstname:Universidad de BarcelonaInglésReproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1344/co201153-14Coolabah, 2011, vol. 5, p. 3-14https://doi.org/10.1344/co201153-14cc-by (c) Alonso Breto, Isabel, 2011http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/esinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/1089882026-05-27T06:46:51Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Eating one's way through history: Food and Politics in Manuka Wijesinghe's Monsoons and Potholes
title Eating one's way through history: Food and Politics in Manuka Wijesinghe's Monsoons and Potholes
spellingShingle Eating one's way through history: Food and Politics in Manuka Wijesinghe's Monsoons and Potholes
Alonso Breto, Isabel
Literatura
Sri Lanka
Literature
Sri Lanka
title_short Eating one's way through history: Food and Politics in Manuka Wijesinghe's Monsoons and Potholes
title_full Eating one's way through history: Food and Politics in Manuka Wijesinghe's Monsoons and Potholes
title_fullStr Eating one's way through history: Food and Politics in Manuka Wijesinghe's Monsoons and Potholes
title_full_unstemmed Eating one's way through history: Food and Politics in Manuka Wijesinghe's Monsoons and Potholes
title_sort Eating one's way through history: Food and Politics in Manuka Wijesinghe's Monsoons and Potholes
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Alonso Breto, Isabel
author Alonso Breto, Isabel
author_facet Alonso Breto, Isabel
author_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Literatura
Sri Lanka
Literature
Sri Lanka
topic Literatura
Sri Lanka
Literature
Sri Lanka
description This paper consists of an analysis of Monsoons and Potholes (2006), the first novel by Sri Lankan playwright Manuka Wijesinghe. Attention is paid to the ways in which the text articulates relations between personal stories, food, history and politics. Food plays a central role in some novels published in the last years by Sri Lankan authors, as is the case, for instance, with Yasmine Gooneratne's A Change of Skies (1984) and Mary Ann Mohanraj's Bodies in Motion (2005). Both these works elaborate metaphors of identity through the dominant trope of food-encompassing cooking and the rituals of consumption. In Monsoons and Potholes, food accompanies and illustrates the autobiographical account of a Sri Lankan youngster born in the early 1960s, and revisits the first twenty years in her life together with the socio-political up and downs in her country. While it is a novel which to a great extent draws on metaphors of myth and history, scenes of food and eating appear consistently throughout the narration, which contribute in providing a down-to-earth (and highly satirical) version of the life of the Sinhala upper-middle classes during the period. These images of food (and the sets of rituals, beliefs and constrictions around it) are exploited by the author with the aim to explore, understand and denounce the historical process which precipitated Sri Lanka, at the beginning of the 1980s, "on the road to nowhere".
publishDate 2011
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2011
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/2445/108988
url https://hdl.handle.net/2445/108988
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Reproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1344/co201153-14
Coolabah, 2011, vol. 5, p. 3-14
https://doi.org/10.1344/co201153-14
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv cc-by (c) Alonso Breto, Isabel, 2011
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv cc-by (c) Alonso Breto, Isabel, 2011
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Centre d'Estudis Australians
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Centre d'Estudis Australians
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv Articles publicats en revistes (Llengües i Literatures Modernes i Estudis Anglesos)
reponame:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
instname:Universidad de Barcelona
instname_str Universidad de Barcelona
reponame_str Dipòsit Digital de la UB
collection Dipòsit Digital de la UB
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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