Month: July 2024

On Wednesday, July 3, the presentation of the book “Sprachwechsel – Perspektivenwechsel? Mehrsprachigkeit und kulturelle Vielstimmigkeit in der deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur”, edited by Gabriella Pelloni and Ievgeniia Voloshchuk, took place in the Dean’s Hall of the Europa-Universität Viadrina. This event is part of a long-standing collaboration between the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Verona and the Faculty of Cultural Studies at Viadrina University. The subsequent debate touched on topics such as multilingualism and linguistic inclusion in the current post-migration society.

The first Food Talk of the “Inclusive Humanities” Project of Excellence, titled “Food and Cultural Identity in Anita Desai’s Fasting, Feasting”, was held on Tuesday, 2 July, at the Santa Marta campus. The talk, given by Dr. Anmol Deep Singh, is the first in a series of Food Talks conceived and curated by Chiara Battisti and Sidia Fiorato that explore the role of food and the typicality of different gastronomic cultures in world literature novels and are open to the public to promote dialogue and social inclusion.

Anmol Deep Singh offered reflections and comparisons between Indian and U.S. cultures through food, the act of eating, and sharing, analysing the novel “Feasting, Fasting” by Anita Desai. The narrative’s timeline coincides with the time it takes for a tea package, shipped from India by older sister Uma, to reach her younger sister Aruna in the United States. Thousands of miles apart, the two sisters live completely different lives: two different cultures reflected through food. Uma, the older sister, burdened with a large and varied family, still cannot leave the nest and looks disapprovingly at Aruna, the younger sister, who, having fled abroad for love, goes on to build a perfect family. The narrative then shifts to Massachusetts, America, where Aruna’s son observes the Patton family’s bewildering life, caught between meat binges and deprivation bordering on anorexia. The novel compares two different worlds that drive the characters to renunciation or excess, to fasting or feasting: the tight-knit, suffocating Indian family and the cold, indifferent freedom American household, where life appears free from rules and obligations.

The talk finally concluded with a themed aperitif offered to the participants.