Political appetites : food in medieval English romance / Aaron Hostetter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hostetter, Aaron Kenneth, 1971- author.

Series:

Interventions: new studies in medieval culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Food in literature.

Food habits in literature.

Cooking in literature.

Romances, English--History and criticism.

Romances, English.

English literature--Middle English, 1100-1500--History and criticism.

English literature.

English literature--Middle English.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xi, 191 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Columbus : The Ohio State University Press, [2017]

Summary:

Political Appetites: Food in Medieval English Romance is the first book-length examination of the cultural and theoretical resonances of food and cooking in medieval English literature, offering a new assessment of the vexed and critically primacy of the food practices of medieval English culture as only reflecting Eucharistic preoccupations. Focusing on the romance literature of English, from tenth-century hagiographic verse to fifteen-century courtly adventures, he also engages the politics of secular cating. Focus on the edible allows Political Appetites to apply fresh insights from cultural studies and critical theory to these narratives-to adumbrate their unique political perspectives. The analysis of food reveals these stories to be sophisticated responses to the material and political conditions of their day. If humanity has attempted through its brief history to render the material world edible, then food and food practice not only influence our aspirations but also shift focus to the limits of human existence on this planet. In studying the food ways of the past as a fundamental economic activity. Political Appetites questions contemporary attitudes towards consumption as their proliferation and abuses create social inequities, menace ecosystems, and threaten to bring about the end of the Anthropocene Era. Book jacket.

Contents:

Andreas: cannibals at the edge of history

The Roman de Silence: crossing categories

Havelok the Dane: food, sovereignty, and social order

Sir Gowther: table manners and aristocratic identity

Conclusion: Cheese and cannibals.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 174-187) and index.

ISBN:

9780814213513

0814213510

OCLC:

975459129