The Problematic Representations of the Orient, Women, and Food Transformations in Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl

Jungyoun  Kim

doi:http://doi.org/

Abstract

Paolo Bacigalupi’s novel, The Windup Girl, illustrates Bangkok using genetic diseases and plagues. In this work, mass-produced, genetically modified food becomes both a diplomatic weapon and subsistence for survival. Western-based multinational agri-corporations transform food as industrial products, and Bacigalupi in turn illustrates the problems of genetic modification led by global capitalism and multinational corporations. However, his critique of genetic modification and food transformation relies on ethnic and gender stereotyping within an Orientalist frame. While he challenges the practices of corporate capitalism, his representation of Asian cultures and traditions is monolithic and consistently reproductive of Orientalist stereotypes. Also, the politics of representation in the novel is closely related with identity politics and subjectivity. In particular, the politics of representation in Bacigalupi’s novel are suspect in constructing Orientalist and sexist stereotypes as a frame, making his critiques of genetic modification and food transformation within Western power structures questionable.

Keywords

ecofeminism, food transformation, Orientalism, GMO, representation, Western hegemony

Please login first to access subscription form of article

Read Full text in PDF

Browse By

Title

Author

Issue

Kritika Kultura
Department of English
School of Humanities
Ateneo de Manila University

The Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) declares Kritika Kultura as a CHED-recognized journal under the Journal Challenge Category of its Journal Incentive Program.

International Board of Editors

Jan Baetens
Professor
Faculty of Arts
Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (Belgium)

Joel David
Professor of Cultural Studies
Inha University (South Korea)

Michael Denning
Professor of American Studies and English
Department of English
Yale University (US)

Faruk
Faculty of Cultural Sciences
Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia)

Regenia Gagnier
Professor of English
University of Exeter (UK)

Leela Gandhi
John Hawkes Professor of the Humanities and English
Brown University (US)

Inderpal Grewal
Professor of Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies
Professor of South Asian Studies, Ethnicity, Race and Migration Studies
Yale University (US)

Peter Horn
Professor Emeritus and Honorary Lifetime Fellow
University of Cape Town (South Africa)
Honorary Professor and Research Associate in German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

Anette Horn
Professor of German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

David Lloyd
Distinguished Professor of English
University of California, Riverside (US)

Bienvenido Lumbera
National Artist for Literature
Professor Emeritus
University of the Philippines

Rajeev S. Patke
Director of the Division of Humanities
Professor of Humanities
Yale NUS College (Singapore)

Vicente L. Rafael
Giovanni and Amne Costigan Endowed Professor of History
University of Washington (US)

Vaidehi Ramanathan
Department of Linguistics
University of California, Davis (US)

Temario Rivera
Professorial Lecturer
Department of Political Science
University of the Philippines

E. San Juan, Jr.
Philippines Studies Center (US)

Neferti X.M. Tadiar
Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
Barnard College (US)
Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
Columbia University (US)

Antony Tatlow
Honorary Professor of Drama
Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)

The Problematic Representations of the Orient, Women, and Food Transformations in Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl

Jungyoun Kim: Sungkyunkwan University

Abstract

Keywords

International Board of Editors

Journal

Contact Us