Gastronomic Irony

Authors

  • Spencer J Weinreich Harvard University Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/ppc.27731

Keywords:

consumption as literary/dramatic device, irony, taboo, prohibitions, transgression, abomination, shame, dietary laws, Thyestes, antiquity, cannibalism, agency

Abstract

The author coins the term ‘gastronomic irony’, a cousin of dramatic irony, to describe the predicament of the diner who eats in ignorance of the (untoward) truth of the menu and looks at this narrative and dramatic device in literature from the ancient world to contemporary popular culture and relates it to anthropological theories regarding pollution and food ethics.

Author Biography

  • Spencer J Weinreich, Harvard University

    Spencer J. Weinreich is a historian and a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2022 and is currently at work on a history of solitary confinement. 

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Published

2023-04-01

Issue

PPC 125 (2023)

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Gastronomic Irony. (2023). Petits Propos Culinaires, 67-72. https://doi.org/10.1558/ppc.27731