Published Online:September 2025
Product Name:The IUP Journal of English Studies
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJES020925
DOI:10.71329/IUPJES/2025.20.3.15-26
Author Name:Rashmi Das
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Arts and Humanities
Download Format:PDF
Pages:15-26
This paper studies the trope of eating disorder as presented in Kiran Desai’s novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (1998). As mental illness plays a defining role in the progression of the narrative, this paper traces the transgression of dietary conventions as a necessary formula to keep oneself in an ordered state. Additionally, the paper studies the usage of art and magic as a means to reaffirm and protect one’s sense of the self. Desai’s novel becomes an interesting site for a discussion on health, as it challenges not only the availability of medical help, but also the very definition of eating disorders by exploring lived experiences, cultural constructs, and pervasive societal negligence, which collectively contribute to mental illness. Focusing on the genre of health humanities, the paper examines the fictional representation of eating disorder through a close reading of the chosen novel.
Illness, as defined by science, “often run[s] up against humanist definitions of identity”, which ultimately produces “a grave effect on those who are subject to it” (Solomon, 2016).