In search of 'home' in the transnational imaginary: food, roots, and routes in memoirs by Asian Australian women writers

For many people, food conveys notions and memories of home, community and identity. In a transnational world, these relations have become more pronounced as food is one the cultural goods that travel in the global networks of human migration and mobility. In diasporic and/or transnational writin...

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Main Authors: Ahmad, Siti Nuraishah, Ramlan, Wan Nur Madiha
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The Wenshan Review 2019
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Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/73133/1/In%20Search%20of%20Home%20in%20the%20Transnational%20Imaginary.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/73133/
https://www.wreview.org/attachments/article/320/In%20Search%20of%20Home%20in%20the%20Transnational%20Imaginary.pdf
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spelling my.iium.irep.731332019-07-12T05:45:56Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/73133/ In search of 'home' in the transnational imaginary: food, roots, and routes in memoirs by Asian Australian women writers Ahmad, Siti Nuraishah Ramlan, Wan Nur Madiha PE English For many people, food conveys notions and memories of home, community and identity. In a transnational world, these relations have become more pronounced as food is one the cultural goods that travel in the global networks of human migration and mobility. In diasporic and/or transnational writing, the preparation and consumption of food often appear as ways of maintaining or examining one’s ties with “home.” This paper takes the memoirs of two Asian Australian women writers, Beth Yahp’s Eat First, Talk Later (2015) and Alice Pung’s Unpolished Gem (2006), as the basis for exploring how food is deployed in the writers’ search for “home” and belonging as transnational subjects. Yahp’s memoir sets out how food and memories of eating mediate her sense of “home” as a person who is designated an Other in Malaysia and Australia. In Alice Pung’s memoirs, food acts as metaphor for her unease and anxiety as an Asian Australian growing up in a homeland that does not quite embrace her and in the shadow of another homeland that keeps her under surveillance across time and space. Using Avtar Brah’s notion of a homing desire, and concepts of authenticity and hybridity explored through food in literary and cultural studies, this paper examines the ways that the selected memoirs deploy food to interrogate the practices of inclusion and exclusion that are part of the making of a sense of “home,” and how food facilitates new ways of belonging in a transnational world. The Wenshan Review 2019 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/73133/1/In%20Search%20of%20Home%20in%20the%20Transnational%20Imaginary.pdf Ahmad, Siti Nuraishah and Ramlan, Wan Nur Madiha (2019) In search of 'home' in the transnational imaginary: food, roots, and routes in memoirs by Asian Australian women writers. The Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture, 12 (2). pp. 103-127. ISSN 2077-1282 https://www.wreview.org/attachments/article/320/In%20Search%20of%20Home%20in%20the%20Transnational%20Imaginary.pdf 10.30395/WSR.201906_12(2).0005
institution Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia
building IIUM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider International Islamic University Malaysia
content_source IIUM Repository (IREP)
url_provider http://irep.iium.edu.my/
language English
topic PE English
spellingShingle PE English
Ahmad, Siti Nuraishah
Ramlan, Wan Nur Madiha
In search of 'home' in the transnational imaginary: food, roots, and routes in memoirs by Asian Australian women writers
description For many people, food conveys notions and memories of home, community and identity. In a transnational world, these relations have become more pronounced as food is one the cultural goods that travel in the global networks of human migration and mobility. In diasporic and/or transnational writing, the preparation and consumption of food often appear as ways of maintaining or examining one’s ties with “home.” This paper takes the memoirs of two Asian Australian women writers, Beth Yahp’s Eat First, Talk Later (2015) and Alice Pung’s Unpolished Gem (2006), as the basis for exploring how food is deployed in the writers’ search for “home” and belonging as transnational subjects. Yahp’s memoir sets out how food and memories of eating mediate her sense of “home” as a person who is designated an Other in Malaysia and Australia. In Alice Pung’s memoirs, food acts as metaphor for her unease and anxiety as an Asian Australian growing up in a homeland that does not quite embrace her and in the shadow of another homeland that keeps her under surveillance across time and space. Using Avtar Brah’s notion of a homing desire, and concepts of authenticity and hybridity explored through food in literary and cultural studies, this paper examines the ways that the selected memoirs deploy food to interrogate the practices of inclusion and exclusion that are part of the making of a sense of “home,” and how food facilitates new ways of belonging in a transnational world.
format Article
author Ahmad, Siti Nuraishah
Ramlan, Wan Nur Madiha
author_facet Ahmad, Siti Nuraishah
Ramlan, Wan Nur Madiha
author_sort Ahmad, Siti Nuraishah
title In search of 'home' in the transnational imaginary: food, roots, and routes in memoirs by Asian Australian women writers
title_short In search of 'home' in the transnational imaginary: food, roots, and routes in memoirs by Asian Australian women writers
title_full In search of 'home' in the transnational imaginary: food, roots, and routes in memoirs by Asian Australian women writers
title_fullStr In search of 'home' in the transnational imaginary: food, roots, and routes in memoirs by Asian Australian women writers
title_full_unstemmed In search of 'home' in the transnational imaginary: food, roots, and routes in memoirs by Asian Australian women writers
title_sort in search of 'home' in the transnational imaginary: food, roots, and routes in memoirs by asian australian women writers
publisher The Wenshan Review
publishDate 2019
url http://irep.iium.edu.my/73133/1/In%20Search%20of%20Home%20in%20the%20Transnational%20Imaginary.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/73133/
https://www.wreview.org/attachments/article/320/In%20Search%20of%20Home%20in%20the%20Transnational%20Imaginary.pdf
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