Eating Otherwise : The Philosophy of Food in Twentieth-Century Literature

This book explores the philosophical implications of the popular adage that 'you are what you eat' through twentieth-century literature. It investigates the connections between the alimentary and the ontological: between what or how one eats and what one is. Maria Christou's focus is on two influential modernist figures, Georges Bataille and Samuel Beckett; and two influential postmodernist figures, Paul Auster and Margaret Atwood. She aims to theorize the relationship between modernism and postmodernism from a specifically alimentary perspective. By examining the work of these major twentieth-century authors, this book focuses on strange or unusual acts of eating - 'eating' otherwise - as a means to ways of 'being' otherwise. What can eating tell us about being, about who we are and about our being in the world? This powerful, innovative study takes literary food studies in a new direction. Cover 1 Half-title 3 Title page 5 Copyright information 6 Table of contents 7 List of Illustrations 8 Acknowledgments 9 Introduction: You Are What You Eat: Thinking Food Otherwise 11 Gastrocriticism 13 I Eat Therefore I Am 18 Thinking Food Otherwise: The Twentieth Century 26 The Egg 35 Chapter 1 Georges Bataille’s Pornographic Food 39 Ontological Consommation 42 Mania for Eggs 44 Milk for the Pussy 50 To Have Done with Shit 55 Fascistic Food 61 Chapter 2 Samuel Beckett’s Alimentary Cogito 67 The Cogito and Reconfigurations 69 Hunger . . . and the Carrot 72 I Am (Cooked) Therefore I Think 76 The Chicken or the Egg? 81 Being-in-Ovo 85 Divine Immanence 88 Eating What You Are 92 The Alimentary Event 96 Chapter 3 Food, the Fall, and the Detective: The Case of Paul Auster 101 Part I 104 The Fall 104 The Ovary of Eve 108 The Egg of the Kabbalah 110 The Final Hatching 112 Part II 114 The Detective Genre 114 Thesis: The Traditional Detective Story 117 Antithesis: The Anti-Detective Story 119 Sublation: The Detective Story 120 Alimentary Control 122 Chapter 4 Food in Margaret Atwood’s Dystopias 130 O(o)ntotheology 132 Sacrifice, Politics, and Eating 135 Eat Thyself 139 Ontology and Auto-Cannibalism 145 Sacrificial Consumption 148 Consumption from Within 150 Atwood’s Alimentary Turn 154 Conclusion: Modernism, Postmodernism, and the Otherwise of Eating 157 The Modernist Otherwise of Eating 158 The Postmodernist Otherwise of Eating 164 Notes 170 Introduction 170 Chapter 1 176 Chapter 2 181 Chapter 3 186 Chapter 4 190 Conclusion 193 Bibliography 196 Index 214 You Are What You Eat: Thinking Food Otherwise -- Georges Bataille's Pornographic Food -- Samuel Beckett's Alimentary Cogito -- Food, The Fall, And The Detective: The Case Of Paul Auster -- Food In Margaret Atwood's Dystopias -- Modernism, Postmodernism, And The Otherwise Of Eating. Maria Christou. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. 'Eating Otherwise' takes literary food studies in a new direction to explore the connections between what or how one eats and what one is. Focusing primarily on four influential twentieth-century authors - Georges Bataille, Samuel Beckett, Paul Auster and Margaret Atwood - the book theorizes the relationship between modernism and postmodernism Taking literary food studies in a new direction to explore the connections between what or how one eats and what one is. Focusing primarily on four influential twentieth-century authors, Georges Bataille, Samuel Beckett, Paul Auster and Margaret Atwood, this book theorizes the relationship between modernism and postmodernism. 'You are what you eat' is an adage taken seriously as this book uncovers connections between the alimentary and ontological