Introduction

Literature begins in the creative possibilities of human language and in the desire of human

beings to use their language creatively. Though its origin lies in the joy of the creation, literature

can be intensely serious. It can use it formal beauty as a way of celebrating those things we value

most highly in life. In the end, literature enriches our lives because it increases our capacities for

understanding and communication. It helps us to find meaning in our world and to express it and

share it with others. And this is the most humane activity of our existence.

From long since, eating has been a basic human activity, an activity which is not only necessary

for continued existence but also connected with social functions. Eating patterns and rituals vary

from culture to culture, and the motive behind these food behaviours are basic towards nurturing

and understanding of human society. Food and drink have not only spiced up but have also

gained progress in the field of printed pages. Food is not only an exploration of tastes but also an

exploration of culture. What we consume, how we acquire it, who prepares it, who's at the table,

and who eats first is a form of communication that is, it has a rich cultural base. Beyond merely

nourishing the body, what we eat and with whom we eat can inspire and strengthen the bonds

between individuals, communities, and even countries. People are connected to a particular

cultural or ethnic group through their food pattern. Food becomes a part of their culture.

Among the many things that set mankind apart from the animal kingdom is that for animals food

is simply a matter of providing nutrients to one's body and to fulfill their appetite. Animals eat
out of instinct. On the other hand, humans see food as much more than something that gives

nutrients. For humans food seems to have an emotional bond rather than a basic instinct.

The food we eat has a dramatic influence on our mental and physical health. Recent research on

the topic has depicted that our diet can have an impact on our mood. There is a strong

relationship between food and atmosphere in emotionally distressed individuals. The

neurotransmitters and neuromodulators are considered to be the basic units of chemical

communication in the human system. Most of the neurotransmitters are deemed to be present in

food, and they have a direct influence on our brain. Research has found that most of the people

consume large quantities of food that are rich in carbohydrates. Consumption of foods that have

high levels of carbohydrates helps people to elevate their mood with the rise of the serotonin

levels in the brain. Bad tastes and dislike towards a particular food item develops easily than

good tastes and likes. Pairing of food and fiction is as old as the ritual books such as "Bhagvad

Gita", "The Bible", and "The Vedas". Because of their elementary place in human life and

culture, foods and patterns of eating and their symbolism are brought to play. Food images and

the use of food as a metaphor is greatly influenced in postmodern culture. Food writing continues

to be so popular because eating and reading remains as the two greatest pleasures of life.

Since time immemorial novels about food and recipes have delighted hundreds of thousands of

readers. Books and food are probably among the most loved things in the world. C. S. Lewis

said, “Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably”. A book with food as a

major literary theme is nothing less than magical. Some of the authors who write about food

include Aimee Bender, J. Ryan Stradal, Chitra Divakaruni, Erica Bauermeister and Ruth Reichl.
“The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake” by Aimee Bender is about a young girl, Rose

Edlestein, who has the ability to taste the emotions of the foods she eats. J. Ryan Stradal’s

“Kitchens of the Great Midwest” centers around Eva, a culinary prodigy born with a “once-in-a-

generation palate” to a chef father and a sommelier mother. Though growing up in poverty and

facing numerous challenges, by age 10 Eva is growing chocolate habanero peppers in her room

and selling them to local restaurants. “The Mistress of Spice” by Chitra Divakaruni deals with an

orphan who has learned to harness the magical properties of spices. As a rule however she

cannot use the powers for her own gain or touch another person. But then she falls in love. Erica

Bauermeister's “The School of Essential Ingredients” centers around eight students who attend a

weekly cooking class at a restaurant. Along the way, their unconventional instructor finds the

“essential ingredients” that awaken and transform the students’ lives. “Delicious !” by Ruth

Reichl is about a young woman, Billie Breslin, with an exceptional sense of taste who gets a job

as an executive assistant at the most iconic food magazine in New York, Delicious! After the

magazine is shut down, she becomes its only employee and is required to manage the public

relations hotline and answer recipe inquiries. In the course of her duties, she stumbles upon

letters written by 12-year old Lulu Swan, during World War II, to James Beard, a legendary chef

and food writer. While reading the letters, she learns about the history and importance of food.

Magical realism or magic realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical

elements blends with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real

occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places  the "real" and the "fantastic" in

the same stream of thought. It is a film, literary and visual art genre. The term is broadly

descriptive rather than critically rigorous : Winona State University Asst. Professor of Japanese
Studies, and author, Matthew Strecher defines magical realism as "...what happens when a highly

detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe".

While the term 'magical realism' in its modern sense first appeared in 1955, the German art critic

Franz Roh first used the phrase in 1925, to refer to a painterly style also known as Neue

Sachlichkeit(the New Objectivity), an alternative championed by fellow German museum

director Gustav Hartlaub. Literary magic realism originated in Latin America. Though every

work of literature in this genre varies in its content and style, there are some characteristics that

appear over and over again. The story must be set in a realistic environment with magical

elements. Part of the draw of magical realism is that it blurs the line between realistic fiction and

fantasy by adding in elements like the presence of dead characters in Toni Morrison's "Beloved",

fluidity of time in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "100 Years of Solitude", and telepathy in tea

Oberht's "The Tiger's White".

Magic Realism has many central ideas like ‘significance of magic and myth’, ‘critique of

rationality and progress’, ‘doubting about reality, ‘exploration of identity’ along with some

exceptional presentation styles. Most of the magic realist texts have the great capabilities of myth

and magic to create a version of reality that distinguishes itself from what is normally supposed

as ‘‘real life”. Some of the most representative authors of Magic Realism in literature are Gabriel

Garcia Marquez, Alejo Carpentier, Mikhail Bulgakov, Miguel Angel Asturias, Carlo Fuentes,

George Luis Borges, Isabel Allende and Laura Esquivel etc. However all these writers had

different times, nationalities social and political backgrounds; they could all create their own

distinction in producing wonderful works of literature of which some would certainly come
under the group ‘Magic Realist Literature’. Some of the major works that use magical realism as

their central theme include “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, “The House of the Spirits”,

“Midnight’s Children”, “Kafka on the Shore, “Life of Pi” and “Nights at the Circus”.

Gynocriticism is a concept introduced in the seventies by influential American feminist and

literary critic Elaine Showalter in Towards a Feminist Poetics. It refers to a kind of criticism

with woman as writer/producer of textual meaning, as against woman as reader (feminist

critique). Being concerned with the specificity of women’s writings (gynotexts) and women’s

experiences, it focuses on female subjectivity, female language and female literary career, and

attempts to construct a female framework for the analysis of literature. Gynocritics are primarily

engaged in identifying distinctly feminine subject matter (domesticity, gestation) in the literature

written by women, uncovering the history of female literary tradition, depicting that there is a

feminine mode of experience and subjectivity in thinking and perceiving the self and the world ,

and specifying traits of “woman’s language”, a distinctively feminine style of speech and

writing. Gynocritics sought to develop new models based on the study of female experience to

replace male models of literary creation, and so "map the territory" left unexplored in earlier

literary criticisms.

Some of the gynocritical texts include Patricia Meyer Spacks‘ "The Female Imagination", Ellen

Moers‘ "Literary Women", Elaine Showalter’s "A Literature of their Own" and Sandra Gilbert

and Susan Gubar’s "The Madwoman in the Attic", which elucidates the anxiety of authorship

that arises from the notion that literary creativity is an exclusive male prerogative, and it is this
anxiety that creates a counter figure for the idealised woman, the mad woman (modelled

on Bertha Rochester in Jane Eyre). Gynocriticism was criticised for essentialism.

One of the contemporary and the most prolific Mexican women novelists of the twentieth

century Laura Beatriz Esquivel Valdéz is a screenwriter and politician serving in the LXIII

Legislature of the Mexican Congress in the Chamber of Deputies for the Morena Party from

2015 to 2018. Esquivel was born on September 30, 1950, in Mexico City, to Julio Caesar, a

telegraph operator, and Josephine Esquivel, the third of four children. Growing up in Mexico,

she was educated at Escuela Normal de Maestros. It was the time when Latin American fiction

was celebrating worldwide popularity. Authors such as García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes,

and Mario Vargas Llosa developed and refined the qualities associated with modern Latin

fiction. This includes magic realism, or the use of fantastic or supernatural elements within an

otherwise realistic story. This magic realist tradition was carried on by Esquivel when she

became a novelist.

Laura Esquivel discovered her calling as a writer in the 1970s while teaching kindergarten,

where she enjoyed writing plays for her students. The work suited her educational background,

having studied education and drama with a special focus on children’s theater. Later she took a

class on screenwriting, an experience that would have a dramatic impact on her life. She mainly

wrote in Spanish and translated her creations into English. Esquivel merges folk stories, magic

realism, and a feminist perspective in her writing, garnering both popular and critical acclaim.

Mexico plays a central role in all of Esquivel’s books. She still lives in Mexico City and often

writes about Mexico’s culture, history and women.

She is best known for her enormously popular 1989 novel Como agua para chocolate : novela

de entregas mensuales con recetas, amores, y remedios caseros. It has been translated  into

numerous languages, and the English version, Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly

Installments, with Recipes, Romances and Home Remedies, enjoyed similar success in the

United States. The film version, scripted by the author and directed by her husband, Alfonso

Arau, has become one of the most popular foreign films of the past few decades.  The novel was

made into a film in 1994, which became one of the most successful foreign films ever released in

the United States. Employing the brand of magic realism that Colombian Gabriel García

Márquez popularized, Esquivel blends culinary knowledge, sensuality, and alchemy with fables

and cultural lore. She has written children's plays, movies, short stories, and several novels,

many of which offer readers a glimpse into a world similar to our own, but where sudden

moments of magic highlight an otherwise realistic storyline. Her novels often explore creative

concepts in storytelling, as they have featured illustrations, cooking recipes, and a musical CD.

Esquivel’s highly anticipated follow-up novel, the historic and futuristic The Law of Love, is an

ambitious undertaking, as it attempts nothing less than to explain the divine laws of the universe

through the context of science fiction and historical fiction. The story mostly takes place in the

23rd century, where characters busy themselves with recalling past lives and forgiving their

enemies in the hopes of existing in harmony with cosmic order. The Law of Love mixes science

fiction and magic realism with a sprinkling of New Age philosophy as it tells the story of

Azucena, an astroanalyst. Throughout the novel Azucena tries to help others as well as herself to

remember and cope with their past lives. Along the way, she struggles to escape villains who
threaten world peace and to reunite with her "twin soul" Rodrigo. Her multimedia story,

interspersed with color illustrations by Spanish artist Miguelano Prado and poetry and

accompanied by a CD that contains arias by Puccini and Mexican danzones, ultimately asserts

the unifying power of love.

Other books by Laura Esquivel include Swift as Desire (2001), a heartfelt story about a telegraph

operator (a tribute to Esquivel’s father, also a telegraph operator) who ironically must learn the

vital importance of communication, and Malinche, based loosely on historical fact about the

relationship between the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and a woman who first served as

his translator and later became his mistress. Her novels often treat the topic of destiny, showing

characters’ ability and inability to control their fate. Esquivel's most recent novels are A Lupita le

gusta planchar (2014 SUMA, Madrid) and El diario de Tita (May 2016 Penguin Random House

Grupo Editorial, Barcelona). The former has been translated into English as Pierced by the

Sun (Trans. Jordi Castells. Amazon Crossing, Seattle 2016).

Like Water for Chocolate is the story of Tita De La Garza. She is the youngest of the three

daughters born to Mama Elena. Tita is a great cook and she knows a great deal about food. She

falls in love with Pedro Muzquiz, who comes to the ranch to ask for her hand in marriage. But

according to Mexican tradition, youngest daughter should remain unmarried and look after her

mother. Pedro marries Tita's oldest sister Rosaura so that he can remain closer to Tita. Rosaura

gives birth to Roberto, whom Tita treats to be her own son. Sensing this, Mama Elena arranged

to move Rosaura's family to San Antonio. Later, a news arrives that Roberto has died due to his

removal from Tita's care. Tita goes through a breakdown thus, Mama Elena send her to an
asylum. Dr. John Brown, a local American doctor, brings Tita back to health. She decides never

to return to the ranch. Soon Mama Elena is injured by the rebel soldiers and found dead from an

overdose of strong emetic. Death of Mama Elena frees Tita from her birthright. She accepts the

engagement proposal from John Brown with whom she has fallen in love. Meanwhile Rosaura

and Pedro have returned to the ranch with thier second child Esperanza. Pedro's presence makes

the situation hard for Tita to choose between Pedro and John Brown. Soon Pedro makes love

with Tita and she gets pregnant. Thus Tita decides to end her engagement to John Brown. Mama

Elena's ghost threatened her. Gertrudis, Tita's long-lost sister returns to the ranch. When John

Brown returns, she confesses to him of her love to Pedro. Years pass by and this time it is the

wedding of Esperanza and Alex, son of John Brown. Rosaura's death paved way for Esperanza's

death. Tita and Pedro are finally free to express their love in the open. On their first night

together, Tita and Pedro experience love so intense that Pedro literally dies in ecstasy.