Etnik Yiyeceğe Karşın Beyaz Yiyecek: David Wong Louie’nin The Barbarians are Coming Adli Romanında Çelişen Yiyecek Tercihleri ve Kuşaklararası Aile Kavgaları

Öz

Bu çalışma, kültürel yemek teorileri ışığında, kimlik inşa etme süreci dinamiklerini David Wong Louie’nin The Barbarians Are Coming (2000) romanında incelemektedir. Bu çalışma, özellikle Claude Fischler ve Deborah Lupton’un görüşlerine odaklanmaktadır. Bu çalışma, birinci ve ikinci kuşak Çin kökenli Amerikalıların çelişen yiyecek seçimlerini ve yemek yeme alışkanlıklarını, onların Amerikan ve/veya etnik beslenme düzenine olan bağlılıklarını ve bunun aile birimi üzerindeki yıkıcı etkisinin sebep olduğu kuşaklararası kavgaları göstermesiyle ele almaktadır. Bu makale, Çin kökenli Amerikalıların yiyeceklerinin ve yemek kültürünün, Çin mutfak düzenini beyaz ırkın besidüzeninin etkilerine karşı koruduğunu göstermektedir; fakat beyaz ırkın damak zevkine karşı olan bu savunmacı tutumun, sınıf gibi sosyal bir değişkenle etkileşimi sonucunda sarsıldığını öne sürmektedir. Romanın analizi, yemek yeme isteğinin etnik mutfak kültürünün dayattığı düzgüsellikten kurtulması sonucunda, iştahın, karakterlerin değişen sosyoekonomik durumuna bağlı olan aykırı yemek yeme eylemleri ile kişiselleştiğini göstermektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Yiyecek
• Kimlik
• Aile
• Çin Amerikan Edebiyatı
• Çin Amerikan Romanı

White Food Versus Ethnic Food: Contrasting Food Choices and Intergenerational Family Conflicts in David Wong Louie’s The Barbarians are Coming

Abstract

This study explores the dynamics of the identity construction process in David Wong Louie’s The Barbarians Are Coming (2000) in the light of cultural food theories, focusing specifically on the views of Claude Fischler and Deborah Lupton. The study discusses the contrasting food choices and eating habits of the first and second generation Chinese Americans reporting the intergenerational conflicts born by the adherence to American and/or ethnic dietary regimen and their disruptive effect on the family unit. The article argues that food and foodways of Chinese Americans guard the culturally defined Chinese culinary regime against the workings of white dietary practices, but the interaction with a social variable such as class challenges this reserved attitude towards the white palate. The analysis of the novel demonstrates that once the desire of eating is no more tempered by the natural tendencies of the ethnic culinary culture, the appetite gets personalized through nonconforming food practices based on the changing socio-economic position of the characters.

Keywords

• Food
• Identity
• Family
• Chinese American Literature
• Chinese American Novel

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