The flavour of homeland in diaspora : food as a marker of self identification in Diana Abou Jaber's crescent

Abstract EN

This article presents a critical analysis of Diana Abou Jaber's Novel Crescent; it examines the fictional representation of food as a marker of identity and an articulator of nostalgia for the lost homeland.

Diana Abu-Jaber often uses food as a literary device and a significant theme in her writings.

The presence of food and the act of eating in her books are used as an important and meaningful symbols since they often function as a compass in the new space – in the United States – establishing as well a bridge between the place of origin and the new setting as the Arab immigrants present in her novels deal with different kinds of displacement, mainly the geographical one.