Abstract
This dissertation is a comparative, transtemporal, food-centered exploration of the intersections of food tropes, masculinity and the construction of national identity in the Lusophone Transatlantic by way of three foundational literary texts: Aluísio Azevedo's O Cortiço (1890, Brazil), Baltasar Lopes's Chiquinho (1947, Cape Verde), and Paulina Chiziane's Niketche: Uma história de poligamia (2002, Mozambique). Through close readings of these texts, this study highlights the ways authors employ food tropes (eating, not eating, food procurement and preparation, coping with food scarcity, etc.) entwined with performances of masculinity as a means to expose the nuances of the intense social, economic and political changes in the historical contexts of the novels. Through the lenses of literary criticism and cultural anthropology, this work aims to depart from the normative Lusotropicalist narrative of national identity construction, which emphasizes the female body and sexual relations, and instead illuminate the role of food and male self-identity in the construction of nation. In so doing, the study argues that the intersections of literary food tropes and performances of masculinity provide an alternate narrative to Gilberto Freyre's Lusotropicalist vision of national identity construction. By emphasizing male characters with anxious appetites, Azevedo, Lopes and Chiziane in their respective works call for a reimagining of national identity where the power of food is equitably divided..