"Dainty Predators" and "Carnivorous Families": The Representation of Hunger in Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters

The cultural practice of obsessive feasting suggests not only individual attitudes to food but also a collective state of spiritual emptiness. In Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters (1990) most male characters’ hunger for food is never satisfied. Their expressed desire to eat at any given circumstance is often aligned with vocalized or wishful sexual urges. Their female counterparts either eschew food ascetically or demonstrate a corresponding degree of gastronomic crave. In this novel, hunger and its direct association with consumption do not define a festive, harmonious environment. Rather, satisfaction of desires is set against a violent, politically charged background. The discussion below traces the representation of hunger and food consumption in the novel to gain fresh insights into the problematic nature of the neocolonial modes of living in Manila. To this end, we argue that Manila in Hagedorn’s Dogeaters is consumed by a collective insatiability and instability fostered by the hegemony of a capitalistic/postmodern dynamic that continues to define the cultural attitudes and practices of the citizenry in the neocolonial city of Manila.