Dogeaters: The relationships between Filipinos, Filipino Americans, and food
Abstract
This honors thesis focuses on how food represents the complexities surrounding Filipino and Filipino-American identities in Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters. Dogeaters satirically responds to the effects of a difficult and long history of Spanish and American colonialism. It also depicts the hypocrisies and abusive powers in the lives of postcolonial Filipino characters. Finally, Hagedorn's fictional characters lead to greater understanding of the current status of Filipinos and Filipino Americans and how they function transnationally through the continuation of food traditions. Throughout the thesis, I reflect on my own life as a Filipino American woman living in the United States searching to balance my Filipino ethnicity with my American national identity, in part through my relationship with cooking and food.