The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Food

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.