Tibet has long been orientalized in fictional representations. Taking as a case study two texts by Alai, this paper investigates how a traditional Tibetan cultural trait–the fish taboo–is mobilized to complicate the representation of Tibetan culture. By describing the fish taboo Alai points at Tibet's cultural specificity, which in virtue of its exoticism can catch the attention of non-Tibetan readers. At the same time, however, Alai equips his characters with psychological depth, showing their contrasting inner emotions of attraction and repulsion toward fish. In this sense, Alai subtly points at the fallacies of flat representations of Tibet, thus dismantling them from within.
University College Dublin, Ireland - ORCID: 0000-0001-9709-4821
University of Costa Rica, Costa Rica - ORCID: 0000-0002-5799-0004
Titolo del capitolo
Negotiating with the tradition: representations of fish in Alai’s fictional writing
Autori
Mario De Grandis, Filippo Costantini
Lingua
English
DOI
10.36253/978-88-5518-506-6.11
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2021
Copyright
© 2021 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Titolo del libro
Food issues 食事
Sottotitolo del libro
Interdisciplinary Studies on Food in Modern and Contemporary East Asia
Curatori
Miriam Castorina, Diego Cucinelli
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
202
Anno di pubblicazione
2021
Copyright
© 2021 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/978-88-5518-506-6
ISBN Print
978-88-5518-505-9
eISBN (pdf)
978-88-5518-506-6
eISBN (epub)
978-88-5518-507-3
Collana
Studi e saggi
ISSN della collana
2704-6478
e-ISSN della collana
2704-5919