Food and Body: Expressions of Death and Life An anthropological perspective

The relationship between the “truth” in fiction and the “reality” in society is one of theme explored in literature, above all on the comparative approach of a character who lived in historical time. My presentation today is on cultural aspects like food and body’s symbolic and metaphorical meanings in novel and in society. They function to strengthen the verisimilitude of the novel, un-discovering with their presence the social and cultural contexts where words, food and body are interconnected in conveying messages as in cases of the novels The Vegetarian (Han Kang) and Tongue (Cho Kyongran). On the one hand, novel evokes in the mind of the reader the verisimilitude of human relationship by creating the atmosphere where actions or emotions are performed trhough empathetic transfer so that the reader experiences them. This mechanism is similar to what fiction of movie creates but the novel differs as it uses only words to create sound, colours, taste, temperature and other tactile senses. The reality of the society is on the other hand, the muse of inspiration, it is the secular knowledge that influences and is influenced by the “truth” of the novel. Of the novels above mentioned my focus is on the body and food which are the main concepts related to relationships, between the self and with others, expressed through the verbal and non verbal communication in the narrative structures of novel and reflected in society. I will suggest that the translatability between two different field-disciplines creates the bridge between the fictional “truth” and the “reality” of society.