Ēdiena nozīme identitātes veidošanā: mūsdienu latviešu un lietuviešu literatūras piemēri
The Role of Food in Creating Identity: Examples from Contemporary Latvian and Lithuanian Literature

Summary/Abstract: The article aims to explore how the identity of an eating person is expressed and constructed in literary works through certain food choices and various culinary practices. It is assumed that studying food is a handy tool for researching the Soviet era as the historical episode that has most affected the 20th-century Lithuanian and Latvian identity and the epoch of perestroika as an attempt to get rid of the foreign power. Three representative novels are chosen for the study: Mātes piens (Soviet Milk, 2015) by Nora Ikstena, Istaba (Room, 2016) by Laima Kota, and Lizos butas (Lisa’s Apartment, 2020) by Lithuanian author Vaiva Rykštaitė. These are not gastrotexts in the literal sense of the word but are all directly related to the transmission of political, ideological or cultural identity through situations of food acquisition, cooking and consumption (the role of the kitchen as a place of communication, food-related metaphors, etc.). The approach of literary imagology helps to research food by highlighting manifestations of ethnic loyalty as a contrast to the behavioral models imposed by foreign ideology.

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