Reading Food in Literature, Film and Other Imaginative Texts

Reading Food in Literature, Film and Other Imaginative Texts is the first dedicated guide to gastrocriticism – an emerging interdisciplinary, critical framework for investigating food, drinks and foodways in literature, film and other imaginative texts.

Organised into three comprehensive sections, this book provides a clear and structured overview of the gastrocritical approach and the roles food and foodways can play across diverse texts. It also features practical tools, such as reading questions, to help scholars kickstart their own critical analysis. Klitzing demonstrates the broad applicability of this approach through extensive examples from a wide range of texts, including both prose and poetry. The book surveys seminal food scholarship, equipping readers with solid theoretical foundations to explore the field with confidence. By grounding gastrocriticism at the intersection of food and literary studies theory, Klitzing brings intellectual depth and substantially contributes to this interdisciplinary space.

Through its hands-on guidance, this book is a highly useful and accessible resource, which will suit the needs of scholars of food, literature and film at both introductory and advanced levels.