The Symbolic Role of African and Afro-Caribbean Food in Bernadine Evaristo’s Novel ‘Girl, Woman, Other’

The novel “Girl, Woman, Other” by Bernardine Evaristo, a British writer with Nigerian roots, describes the lives of twelve characters whose life paths and destinies are connected or distantly linked to each other. The author touches upon sensitive issues of racism, feminism, identity, tolerance that are masterly expressed by means of stylistic devices. Food in the novel takes on several functions: cultural, social, psychological and motivic and plays a major role in interpreting cross-cultural literature. African and Afro-Caribbean dishes are seen in the text to show the identity traits of a character and convey the symbolic meaning of taste, color and flavor.