Mara, Miriam O’Kane. “James Joyce and the Politics of Food.” New Hibernia Review, vol. 13, no. 4, 2009, pp. 94-110, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/365718/pdf. Accessed November 21, 2016.
Related Topics:
Colonization
Gender
Consumption
Link to citation page: http://grinnellcollege.worldcat.org/title/james-joyce-and-the-politics-of-food/oclc/615182453&referer=brief_results
Link to Full Text: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/365718/pdf
Miriam O’Kane Mara illustrates the way in which gender, colonization, and identity inform an individual’s consumption throughout James Joyce’s career in her article, “James Joyce and the Politics of Food.” Mara argues that throughout Joyce’s work there are characters who “who restrict their food intake in particular social and political situations,” therefore creating “complicated connections between food, politics, and gender in Ireland,” (94). The article begins with the historical context of Irish food refusal. Mara states that food refusal is an Irish tradition used as a form of political speech. This tradition arose during the Irish famine in which Ireland suffered both extreme food shortages and an exportation of existing food into England. This made the famine into a symbol of English oppression which politicized Irish eating behavior and made food a stronger marker of identity.
Mara begins her textual analysis with an examination of the Christmas dinner table in “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.” Gender informs the consumption habits of individuals at the table during moments of contention. During a conversation on nationalism and Catholicism, the male characters favor nationalism at the expense of faith which the female characters are largely opposed to. The women refrain from eating as a form of protest in order gain access to power and a voice. Mara includes a number of citation from “A Portrait” to provide examples of male consumption and the concurrent prevention of female consumption.
Next, Mara focuses on Stephen Dedalus in “Ulysses” to redraw the axis of gender, political orientation, and consumption. Stephen serves as a “feminized colonial subject” who attempts to build a new identity aligned with the mind and spirit rather than the body (100). He is contrasted with the “plump” Buck Mulligan who represents the “colonized body politic,” which Stephen wishes to escape (101). Stephen fears his own confusion about his gender identity and attempts to shutout outside forces. On such force that Mara views as paramount is food which Stephen thinks poses a threat to his identity. Mara claims that Stephen has discomfort in having a body which he counters by attempting to “deny and shrink corporeal presence,” (104). This results in a strict control of eating in which Stephen goes so far as to refute the ingestion of solid foods.
Related References:
Brivic, Sheldon. Joyce Between Freud and Jung. London: Kennikat Press, 1980.
Cheng, Vincent. Joyce, Race, and Empire. Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Dwyer, June. “Feast and Famine: James Joyce and the Politics of Food.” Proteus: A Journal of Ideas 17(1) (2001), pp 43.
Nandy, Ashis. The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self Under Colonialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.
