Chain-Stores and the Mother-cook: Migrant Mothers on Consumerism An exploration of selected works of Amulya Malladi and Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni

DOI: 10.5176/2251-3566_L318.302

Authors: R.L.A Nipuni Ranaweera

Abstract: In this paper, I strive to examine the ways in which mother figures and their culinary performances in selected works of South Asian migrant fiction challenge and are challenged by America’s global consumerist trends, as reflected primarily in these works in the multi-national fast food trade. While the daughter figures in these works are seen to interact with, even inhabit this culture the mother figures are seen to lead to an existence which is opposed to the ethics of this culture. The fictions, in fact, become sites of a battleground for the conflict between the mother’s spheres and ultra-consumer-oriented worlds which is chiefly characterized by mass-serving chain stores, department stores, and a depersonalized corporate sector. I will argue that often the claims this consumerist world make on the younger women in the diasporas are mitigated by the presence of their mothers. The pressures these young women experience to assimilate into the mainstream culture of their adopted countries which is driven by impersonal consumerism would also be studied further concerning the role of the maternal figures in these lives.

Keywords: migrant fiction; south asian women writers; culinary fiction; mother figures