Taste of Defiance: Culinary Identity in William Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust and the Palestinian Context
Taste of Defiance: Culinary Identity in William Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust and the Palestinian Context
by
Abstract
Generally approached as a source of sustenance, food can transcend its basic function, evolving into a powerful nonverbal idiom articulating identity, resilience and cultural continuity. This concept is vividly illustrated in William Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust (1948), through the character of Lucas Beauchamp, whose culinary practices serve as a profound expression of his identity and resistance against white marginalisation. Similarly, for the Palestinian people, food becomes a vital emblem of cultural heritage and defiance in the face of colonial oppression. By employing post-colonial theories, this article examines how food operates as a medium of expression that captures the complexities of identity, community, and survival amidst the forces of erasure and alienation. Through a comparative analysis of Lucas’s relationship with food and that of the Palestinian colonised people, the essay unveils the intricate ways in which culinary practices serve not merely as acts of sustenance but as profound statements of existence, resilience, and assertion of identity.
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non–Commercial No Derivatives License which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of the Publisher must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
