From Eve’s Apple to Nora’s Heartburn: On Studying Food in Literature
with Anke Klitzing
Language: in English
Attendance: Remotely
Scholarship in gastronomy and food studies takes a comprehensive view of food and the food system and approaches them via a variety of disciplines. The social sciences did pioneering work in the field and are joined by other disciplines today, not least the humanities and among them, literary studies.
Food can be found in many texts ranging from the objective, pragmatic and information-focused to highly literary texts dealing with identity, culture, politics and morality. Food is a rich prism through which to understand literature better, but literature is also a tool to understand more about food and foodways.
Gastrocriticism is a form of literary criticism focused on humans’ relationships with each other and with the natural world through food. It is informed by the concepts and insights of gastronomical scholarship and food studies, pays particular attention to the role gastronomy plays in literary writing and is based on the understanding that literature/writing and human behavior around food and eating reflect and shape each other.
This talk will discuss literary food studies and the gastrocritical paradigm and give an insight into the long history of writing about food.
We have adapted the organization of Seminars and Conferences in respect of the government health provisions to guarantee strict compliance from all those involved in the academic experience (students, teachers, administrative staff), in an effort to safeguard everyone’s safety.
For this reason all the conferences will take place remotely and will be recorded; each of them will have a virtual classroom available on the BlackBoard e-learning platform.