POETICS OF GASTRONOMIC IMAGES IN JHUMPA LAHIRI`S “THE NAMESAKE”

Abstract

The article deals with the analysis of food concept as a personification of Asian identity; with Indian gastronomy code analysis in Jhumpa Lahiri`s writing (an American writer of Bengali origin). The author of the article notes that food serves as a conditional language for characters and as a cultural code that can successfully be interpreted by “ours” only – Indian culture representatives. Such symbolic “contact” with the cuisine of another country allows better to differentiate, to understand and to assimilate “our”. Therefore, cultural culinary differences are found in the kitchen, where the character is accustomed to spend most of her day and especially carefully prepares the dishes. An interpretation of cooking as a true art is associated with Jhumpa Lahiri`s marginalized / border characters: you need to remember how much, when, and what kind of spices are to be added to the dishes. As a true Bengali woman, the character skillfully prepares traditional “her” dishes. The heroine “fills” her inner cultural nostalgia and sadness with cooking, and thus tries to move home mentally. She realizes that all other identities in herself can be disappointed and even broken, but the chef identity will always stand, it will stand even in a new cultural environment. Food and character`s culinary activities serve as a cover to talk about something else: the psychology, and, above all, the expression of cultural identity.