Read My Plate

Deborah R. Geis

ISBN 10: 1498574459 / ISBN 13: 9781498574457

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, US, 2021

About this Item

Whether perusing a recipe or learning what a literary character eats, readers approach a text differently when reading about food. Read My Plate: The Literature of Food explores what narrators and characters (in fiction, in performance, and in the popular genre of the "food memoir") cook and eat. Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, the inmates of the Terezin concentration camp, performance artist Karen Finley, novelist Jhumpa Lahiri, playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, and the celebrated chef-turned-travel-journalist Anthony Bourdain are just a few examples of the writers whose works are discussed. Close readings of the literal and figurative "plates" in these texts allow a unique form of intimate access to the speakers' feelings and memories and help readers to understand more about how the dynamics of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and social class affect what the narrators/characters eat, from tourtière to collard greens to a school lunch bento box.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781498574457

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Read My Plate
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, US
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1498574459
• ISBN 13: 9781498574457
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 277 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Whether perusing a recipe or learning what a literary character eats, readers approach a text differently when reading about food. Read My Plate: The Literature of Food explores what narrators and characters (in fiction, in performance, and in the popular genre of the “food memoir”) cook and eat. Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, the inmates of the Terezin concentration camp, performance artist Karen Finley, novelist Jhumpa Lahiri, playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, and the celebrated chef-turned-travel-journalist Anthony Bourdain are just a few examples of the writers whose works are discussed. Close readings of the literal and figurative “plates” in these texts allow a unique form of intimate access to the speakers’ feelings and memories and help readers to understand more about how the dynamics of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and social class affect what the narrators/characters eat, from tourtière to collard greens to a school lunch bento box.

About the Author

Deborah R. Geis is professor of English at DePauw University.