Eating Cultures in Children's Literature

<p>Eating Cultures in Children's Literature - National International and Transnational Perspectives investigates how the child is positioned as the consumer/eater of cultural food. It also highlights some ingredients that are to be found on more than one national menu so to speak. We interrogate what it means to serve a cultural meal to a young person identifying the discourses that are inscribed in the recipe. By analyzing authorial or translational choices the different chapters explore the thematic and ideological roots of the stories that authors illustrators and translators offer their young readers. The essays in this collection are organized around three themes in children's cultural and literary texts about food and eating. In the first section the political dimensions of food narratives are explored. Food's power to define us versus them is key to understanding food narratives in their national and political contexts. The second part is dedicated to inter/national and transnational nightmares specifically narratives addressing the supreme threat lurking in young people's literature: being eaten. Finally the collection features a section on food fantasies in young people's narratives and addresses the disconcerting capability of food to transform translate transcend and become abundantly surreal without ever losing the power to marvel and satiate even when it conveys complex concepts and ideas.</p><p></p><p>Enjoy! </p>