Culinary Anxieties in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Mrs Sen’s and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Mrs Dutta Writes a Letter

Abstract

A sense of displacement is an essential element of the immigrant experience and food
is one of the most important aspects that help in understanding ideas of separation, memory and
longing for the homeland. Food becomes a metaphor for home and the connections between
people and an integral part of the migrant’s attempt to acculturate or hold on to idea of the
homeland. This paper aims to look at food and culinary activity as a means to negotiate the
various dilemmas of the diasporic experience through two short stories by the diasporic writers
Jhumpa Lahiri and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Culinary anxieties thus become a symbol of and
focalizer for certain cultural concerns, including individual and ethnic identity, highlighting
issues of heritage and collective memory.