The phrase 'you are what you eat' (derived from the 19th-century German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach, who probably adapted it from the French gastronomic writer Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin) implies an uncanny destabilization of an overly humanistic mind-centredness, opening up to the wider material dimensions of culture. It is in this sense that food (and drink) is a topic par excellence for Cultural Studies. More specifically, we will be following the Circuit of Culture – production, consumption, regulation, representation and identity – to explain the meanings and practices around food, its role and relevance in various cultural contexts and historical conjunctures. We will not only look at British food in the four kingdoms but also take into account larger contexts such as the relations between Britain and the US, Britain and Continental Europe as well as their former colonies. Media representations (literature, film/TV and other visual media in a digital age), will stand in the foreground, and points of attention will cover aspects such as class, gender, nation and migration, also considering more food-specific issues like eating disorders, food activism and human-animal relationships. Wider complexities to be discussed will include globalization, ecology, ethnology, religion and other ideological horizons (e.g. notions of care, asceticism and sacrifice).
- Trainer/in: Harald Pittel