Food and Women in an Italian-Canadian Novel: Tenor o f Love by Mary Di Michele
Abstract
Food is an important “identity marker” and plays a key role
in the migration process: by consuming the food and maintaining the
culinary habits of their country, migrants affirm their identity and
culture. Moreover, food is often associated with memory and nostalgia
for the country of origin: indeed, it is evident that the presence of food
and its preparation in literature becomes a kind of mirror for society.
In the case of Canada, this analytical perspective appears particularly
interesting, because its cultural context is hybrid: half American, half
European, and with a considerable number of immigrants from all over
the world.
In this “gastro-literary” journey I propose to take, I will try to
show that nourishment is a solid and real principle in the construction
of identity in Canada, through the works of Italian migrant writers.
In this contribution, I will analyze the theme of food connected to
pleasure in a novel by an Italian-Canadian writer, Mary Di Michele,
entitled Tenor o f Love. I will mainly consider the passages in this novel
in which culinary practices are used as metaphors for situations typical
of Italian migrants to Canada. Thereafter, I will examine the close
link between the search for identity and female authenticity present
in the novel, and how Di Michele manages to deconstruct the cliches associated with Italian culture and tradition through the figurative
value of nourishment, managing to restore, through writing, legitimacy
to women.
Keywords
Food, identity, Italian-Canadian writer, Mary Di Michele, women
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