The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Food

This Companion rethinks food in literature from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales to contemporary food blogs, and recovers cookbooks as literary texts.

J. Michelle Coghlan (Edited by)

9781108427364, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 March 2020

314 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 2 cm, 0.55 kg

'The book is clearly written and full of engaging facts and literary connections.' M. K. Bloodsworth-Lugo, Choice

This Companion provides an engaging and expansive overview of gustation, gastronomy, agriculture and alimentary activism in literature from the medieval period to the present day, as well as an illuminating introduction to cookbooks as literature. Bringing together sixteen original essays by leading scholars, the collection rethinks literary food from a variety of critical angles, including gender and sexuality, critical race studies, postcolonial studies, eco-criticism and children's literature. Topics covered include mealtime decorum in Chaucer, Milton's culinary metaphors, early American taste, Romantic gastronomy, Victorian eating, African-American women's culinary writing, modernist food experiments, Julia Child and cold war cooking, industrialized food in children's literature, agricultural horror and farmworker activism, queer cookbooks, hunger as protest and postcolonial legacy, and 'dude food' in contemporary food blogs. Featuring a chronology of key publication and historical dates and a comprehensive bibliography of further reading, this Companion is an indispensible guide to an exciting field for students and instructors.

Introduction: the literature of food J. Michelle Coghlan
1. Medieval feasts Aaron K. Hostetter
2. The art of early modern cookery Joe Moshenska
3. The Romantic revolution in taste Denise Gigante
4. The matter of early American taste Lauren Klein
5. The culinary landscape of Victorian literature Kate Thomas
6. Modernism and gastronomy Allison Carruth
7. Cold War cooking J. Michelle Coghlan
8. Farm horror in the twentieth century Michael Newbury
9. Queering the cookbook Katharina Vester
10. Guilty pleasures in children's literature Catherine Keyser
11. Postcolonial tastes Parama Roy
12. Black power in the kitchen Erica Fretwell
13. Farmworker activism Sarah D. Wald
14. Digesting Asian America Anne Anlin Cheng
15. Postcolonial foodways in contemporary African literature Jonathan Bishop Highfield
16. Blogging food, performing gender Emily Contois.

Subject Areas: Cookery / food & drink etc [WB], Food & society [JFCV], Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Literary theory [DSA], Literature: history & criticism [DS]