Author ORCID Identifier
Document Type
Doctoral Thesis
Disciplines
Interdisciplinary, 6. HUMANITIES, Literary theory, Gastronomy, Food Studies, *Literary Food Studies, *Critical Food Studies, *Irish Food Studies
Abstract
The aim of this study is to map out the gastrocritical approach, using Irish literature and writing to test its premises, and to provide a vade mecum for its practical application, particularly for interdisciplinary scholars. The gastrocritical approach furnishes a “culinary lens” for reading food and foodways in imaginative texts, informed by work in the field of food studies and gastronomy. The approach was broadly characterised by Tobin in 2002, but only sparsely used since. The past fifteen years have seen an increasing self-awareness and reflexivity in the field of literary food studies. As the field matures, there have been calls for more meta-scholarship, a critical vocabulary and a systematic approach to this scholarly activity. Recently, a number of seminal monographs and edited collections have contributed to the conceptualisation of the field, but have as of yet fallen short of elaborating the critical approach in a detailed, comprehensive and replicable manner. The need for this can be seen in food studies classrooms, such as at the TU Dublin School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology, where students and novice scholars of this interdisciplinary field have pressed for guidance and tools for the interpretation of food in imaginative texts. The present study aims to fill this gap. Through the publication of a series of articles that interpret food in Irish literature, as well as the teaching and application of the developing approach in classrooms and postgraduate research at TU Dublin, the study has iteratively defined and refined the gastrocritical approach, developing the Functional Model of Food in Texts as a conceptual guideline and a heuristic tool of fifty Gastrocritical Reading Questions. Additionally, it has captured the iterative progress of the project itself to provide insights into the evolution of interdisciplinary PhD research by an early-career academic at a new Irish Technological University. Aside from five peer-reviewed publications highlighting previously overlooked nuances in Irish literary works, and a sixth on literary food studies, the study can point to positive impact in the form of several completed, ongoing and proposed postgraduate dissertations employing the gastrocritical approach. This shows that the gastrocritical approach is a valuable and replicable critical paradigm that is able to further integrate literary studies and food studies, adding also to the growing scholarship in Irish food studies and Irish literary food studies.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21427/5ZSR-M253
Recommended Citation
Klitzing, A. 'Defining Gastrocriticism as a Critical Paradigm on the Example of Irish Literature and Food Writing: A Vade Mecum' (Unpublished PhD Thesis, Technological University Dublin, 2023), DOI: 10.21427/5ZSR-M253
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Included in
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Publication Details
Thesis submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy, Technological University Dublin, September 2023.