PJAS 18-15
Izabella Kimak
You Are What You Eat: Narrating Ethnic Identity Through Food in Polish Chicagoan Writing
Polish Journal for American Studies, vol. 18 (2024), pp. 211-221
Abstract: This article offers an analysis of the representation and function of food in several texts by contemporary American writers of Polish descent associated with the city of Chicago. All of the texts analyzed below present Polish foodways as an important element of Polish diasporic identity. Foodscapes in what I call Polish Chicagoan literature are invariably depicted as a gendered space, although, as this article will show, detailed descriptions of food production and consumption tend to lead to different outcomes in the texts authored by male and female writers.
Keywords: Polish American literature, American Polonia, foodways, Stuart Dybek, Elizabeth Kern, Marcia Cebulska, Chicago
DOI: 10.7311/PJAS.18/2024.15