Synopses & Reviews
Despite the fact that Food Studies has grown into a well-established field, literary scholars have not yet fully addressed the prevalent themes of food, eating, and consumption in Chicana/o literature. This exciting anthology examines representations of food in contemporary Chicana/o literary texts. Here, contributors propose food consciousness as a paradigm to examine the literary discourses of Chicana/o authors as they shift from the nation to the post-nation. The essays articulate the transnational and global dimensions and introduce food consciousness as an alternative paradigm to Gloria Anzaldúa's 'mestiza consciousness,' Chela Sandoval's 'differential consciousness,' and Emma Pérez's 'historical consciousness.'
Synopsis
As Food Studies has grown into a well-established field, literary scholars have not fully addressed the prevalent themes of food, eating, and consumption in Chicana/o literature. Here, contributors propose food consciousness as a paradigm to examine the literary discourses of Chicana/o authors as they shift from the nation to the postnation.
About the Author
Nieves Pascual Soler is Associate Professor of American Literature at the University of Jaén, Spain. She is the author of A Critical Study of Female Culinary Detective Stories: Murder by Cookbook and Hungering as Symbolic Language and the co-editor of Comidas bastardas: Gastronomía, tradición e identidad en América Latina.
Meredith E. Abarca is Associate Professor of Chicana/o Literature at the Universtiy of Texas at El Paso, US. She is the author of Voices in the Kitchen and her work has appeared in Food and Foodways; Food, Culture and Society; and edited collections such as Taking Food Public, Redefining Foodways in a Changing World, and The Routledge Companion to U.S. Latino/a Literature.
Table of Contents
PART I: TRANSLATABLE FOODS
1. Diabetes, Culture, and Food: Posthumanist Nutrition in the Gloria Anzaldúa Archive; Suzanne Bost
2. Bologna Tacos and Kitchen Slaves: Food and Identity in Sandra Cisneros's Caramelo; Heather Salter
3. Food Journeys in Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation and Woman Hollering Creek; Norma L. Cárdenas
PART II: THE TASTE OF AUTHENTICITY4. 'Because Feeding is the Beginning and End': Food Politics in Ana Castillo's So Far From God; Elizabeth Lee Steere
5. Food, Consciousness and Feminism in Denise Chávez's Loving Pedro Infante; Laura P. Alonso Gallo
PART III: THE VOICE OF HUNGER
6. Families Who Eat Together, Stay Together: But Should They?'; Meredith E. Abarca
7. La Comida y La Conciencia: Foods in the Counter-Poetics of Lorna Dee Cervantes; Edith Vásquez, University of California, Riverside, and Irene Vásquez
8. Hungers and Desires: Borderlands Appetites; Norma E. Cantú
PART IV: MACHOS OR COOKS
9. Chicano Culinarius: From Cowboys to Gastronomers; Nieves Pascual
10. Mexican Meat Matzah Balls: Burciaga as a Culinary Ambassador; Mimi Reisel Gladstein
11. Reading the Taco Shop Poets in the Crossroads of Chicano Postnationalism; Paul Allatson