Digital Object Identifier
Published in Japan in 2017, Asako Yuzuki’s Butter problematises the conventional kitchen, a space traditionally occupied by women to fulfil the socially scripted gender roles. The protagonist, Rika’s spatial and somatic transformation is analysed through the intersecting theoretical frameworks of Edward W. Soja’s Spatial Trialectics and Bertrand Westphal’s ‘polysensoriality’. This transformation is an act of feminist resistance against the rigid Japanese cultural norms. Her sterile Firstspace kitchen after an interaction with Manako Kajii becomes a symbolic arena of defiance and desire. The visceral consumption of butter and subsequent rich food alters not just the space that Rika occupies but also remaps her body. The paper ultimately highlights how Yuzuki's depiction of simple culinary acts functions as a form of resistance in a culture where appetite for both food and identity is restricted and policed.
Ms Shilpa Uparkar. “Spatial Analysis of the Kitchen in Asako Yuzuki’s Butter.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 3, June 2026, pp. 548-559. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n3.33.
Open Access · CC BY 4.0 · Crossref DOI ·
the-criterion.com