<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> In Rose Tremain’s The Road Home, the culture clash of the British and the East-Central European is portrayed through a complex symbolism centred on images of food, consumption and waste. This literary representation may shed light on British literary auto-images, as well as hetero-images of the Eastern European immigrant. The novel’s presentation of this culture shock is defined by the cultural historical and economic circumstances of the parties. Food and material provide the symbolic sphere where the relationship between Britain and East-Central Europe is characterized in terms of capitalist worldview as opposed to a post-communist existence. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is the most important intertext for Tremain’s novel. Hamlet is obsessed with the vulnerability of material in light of the spiritual value attached to it in the form of human soul. Stephen Greenblatt’s ideas on food, waste and the Christian belief in divine existence residing in material objects - ideas that originate in early modern times - shed light on the motif of material and food in The Road Home. Seen through the symbolism of food and the idea of differing values being attached to matter, the narrative identity of Lev, the protagonist of Tremain’s work, experiences drastic change due to his encounter with the capitalist, British ‘other’. </p></abstract>

In Rose Tremain’s The Road Home, the culture clash of the British and the East-Central European is portrayed through a complex symbolism centred on images of food, consumption and waste. This literary representation may shed light on British literary auto-images, as well as hetero-images of the Eastern European immigrant. The novel’s presentation of this culture shock is defined by the cultural historical and economic circumstances of the parties. Food and material provide the symbolic sphere where the relationship between Britain and East-Central Europe is characterized in terms of capitalist worldview as opposed to a post-communist existence. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is the most important intertext for Tremain’s novel. Hamlet is obsessed with the vulnerability of material in light of the spiritual value attached to it in the form of human soul. Stephen Greenblatt’s ideas on food, waste and the Christian belief in divine existence residing in material objects - ideas that originate in early modern times - shed light on the motif of material and food in The Road Home. Seen through the symbolism of food and the idea of differing values being attached to matter, the narrative identity of Lev, the protagonist of Tremain’s work, experiences drastic change due to his encounter with the capitalist, British ‘other’.

The Image of the East-Central European in Rose Tremain’s The Road Home

Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest, Hungary) Department of English Studies School of English and American Studies

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Food, Materialism and Capitalist Faith in a Culture Clash

In Rose Tremain’s The Road Home, the culture clash of the British and the East-Central European is portrayed through a complex symbolism centred on images of...

The Image of the East-Central European in Rose Tremain’s The Road Home

Published Online: Dec 30, 2015

Page range: 83 - 94

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ausp-2015-0038

Keywords
British East-Central Europe novel, symbol of food, Tremain, Greenblatt, capitalism, material, representation

© 2016

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

The Image of the East-Central European in Rose Tremain’s The Road Home

Published Online: Dec 30, 2015

Page range: 83 - 94

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ausp-2015-0038

KeywordsBritish East-Central Europe novel, symbol of food, Tremain, Greenblatt, capitalism, material, representation

© 2016

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
British East-Central Europe novel, symbol of food, Tremain, Greenblatt, capitalism, material, representation