Remembering the "Home" through YouTube Cooking Videos: Sensory Evocations, Cultural Negotiations and the Diasporic Kitchen

Abstract

This thesis examines how food, culture and identity are linked to the idea of "home." Through a reading of oral narratives produced on the YouTube channel "ShowMetheCurry," I investigate how presenters Anuja and Hetal "write back" from a diasporic space in Texas, to the YouTube global public, and how food and cuisine, even in the age of globalization can be problematic in terms of representation of identities, work and space. I explore how the YouTube videos operate as a heterotopia, as what is presented to the audience in this medium is an embedding of spaces. The space that is projected through "ShowMetheCurry," that of Anuja and Hetal's own home kitchen, is then projected and viewed within the audiences' own spaces, in various locations around the world. What connects these spaces is an interest in cooking, and a longing to satiate culinary nostalgia.

Author Keywords: Affect, Culinary nostalgia, Discourse analysis, Food culture, South Asian Diaspora, YouTube

    Item Description
    Type
    Contributors
    Creator (cre): Ahmed, Naveera
    Thesis advisor (ths): Bailey, Dr. Suzanne
    Degree committee member (dgc): Bhandar, Dr. Davina
    Degree committee member (dgc): Eddy, Dr. Charmaine
    Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University
    Date Issued
    2014
    Date (Unspecified)
    2014
    Place Published
    Peterborough, ON
    Language
    Extent
    165 pages
    Rights
    Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted.
    Subject (Topical)
    Local Identifier
    TC-OPET-10053
    Publisher
    Trent University
    Degree
    Master of Arts (M.A.): English (Public Texts)