| Abstract [eng] |
This master thesis analyzes Ieva Dumbrytė’s novel Šaltienos bistro through the theoretical frameworks of gastropoetics and the grotesque. The primary objective is to examine the novel’s setting and thematic depth, focusing on how food imagery functions as a narrative tool to express the characters’ moral decay and the degradation of women. In the novel, food emerges not merely as sustenance but as a symbolic medium that reflects psychological states and social critique. Gastropoetics is employed to explore how culinary motifs transcend sensory meaning, becoming intertwined with existential, ethical, and ideological discourse. The study’s methodology also incorporates the analysis of grotesque aesthetics, which illuminate the distorted, exaggerated, and boundary-crossing aspects of the text. The grotesque world of Šaltienos bistro blurs the line between the human and the non-human, the mundane and the horrific, the edible and the embodied. Cannibalism is explored as an extreme metaphor for domination and annihilation, related to power dynamics and the reconstruction of corporeality. Central to the analysis is C. J. Adams’s feminist theory, which highlights the symbolic and material parallels between the treatment of animals and women, foregrounding the systemic violence embedded in dominant cultural narratives. The research aims to uncover the complex role of food symbolism in relation to identity, power, and social structures. Specific attention is paid to the cultural and ideological significance of dishes such as aspic, meat, and the act of consumption itself. The grotesque is examined not only as a stylistic device but as a mode of ethical and political commentary that shapes the novel’s narrative and emotional atmosphere. It helps to articulate the characters’ relationships to their own bodies, to desire, and to societal norms, revealing deeper cultural tensions. Furthermore, the study explores the objectification and deconstruction of the female body, employing the intersection of cannibalistic and feminist theories. The female body becomes a symbolic surface upon which narratives of control, sexuality, and violence are projected. It is no longer a biological given but a site of ideological production, where fear, domination, and consumption converge. The findings demonstrate how literary techniques and theoretical perspectives illuminate the novel’s critique of broader societal issues, including moral disintegration, identity fragmentation, and gender inequality. Šaltienos bistro emerges as a significant literary work in which food, flesh, and the grotesque function as tools to interrogate contemporary culture’s treatment of women and their morality. |
