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Palgrave Macmillan

Consuming Gothic

Food and Horror in Film

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Lorna Piatti-Farnell

    1. Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

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  • The first volume to analyse food and Gothic horror in film
  • Offers fresh perspectives on Gothic horror through the visceral framework of eating
  • Covers topics of disgust, abject, hunger, violence, and slaughter

Part of the book series: Palgrave Gothic (PAGO)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Approaching Food and Horror

    • Lorna Piatti-Farnell
    Pages 1-38

  3. Horror Matters: Abominable Substances and the Revulsions of Orality

    • Lorna Piatti-Farnell
    Pages 39-87

  4. Consuming Hunger: Body Narratives and the Controversies of Incorporation

    • Lorna Piatti-Farnell
    Pages 89-131

  5. A Taste for Butchery: Slaughterhouse Narratives and the Consumable Body

    • Lorna Piatti-Farnell
    Pages 133-177

  6. Feeding Nightmares: Madness, Hauntings, and the Kitchen of Horrors

    • Lorna Piatti-Farnell
    Pages 179-219

  7. A Bitter Feast: Dining Tables in their Horror Contexts

    • Lorna Piatti-Farnell
    Pages 221-259

  8. Conclusion: Consuming Gothic and Its Discontents

    • Lorna Piatti-Farnell
    Pages 261-266

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 267-276
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Keywords

About this book

This book offers a critical analysis of the relationship between food and horror in post-1980 cinema. Evaluating the place of consumption within cinematic structures, Piatti-Farnell analyses how seemingly ordinary foods are re-evaluated in the Gothic framework of irrationality and desire. The complicated and often ambiguous relationship between food and horror draws important and inescapable connections to matters of disgust, hunger, abjection, violence, as well as the sensationalisation of transgressive corporeality and monstrous pleasures. By looking at food consumption within Gothic cinema, the book uncovers eating as a metaphorical activity of the self, where the haunting psychology of the everyday, the porous boundaries of the body, and the uncanny limits of consumer identity collide. Aimed at scholars, researchers, and students of the field, Consuming Gothic charts different manifestations of food and horror in film while identifying specific socio-political and cultural anxieties of contemporary life.




Reviews

“[The title] would be particularly interesting for those working at the intersection of food studies, popular media, and critical theory. … For those interested in updates to classic horror tropes, the anthology provides smart and contemporary takes on zombies and vampires.” (KC Lynch, The Journal of the Fantastic in the Art, Vol. 30 (2), 2020)

“A leading Gothic and food scholar, Piatti-Farnell offers an insightful examination of the social and cultural anxieties that surround food. Acknowledging the centrality of eating to survival and culture, she explores how food horror undermines the normality of food by confronting us with its abject realities.  Often unsettling, sometimes revolting, but always enlightening, Piatti-Farnell’s analysis gives the reader a lot to chew over; food for thought for the horror fan or scholar alike.  Bon Appetit.” (Stacey Abbott is a Reader in Film and Television Studies at the University of Roehampton, UK. She is the author of “Undead Apocalypse: Vampires and Zombies in the 21st Century” (2016))

Authors and Affiliations

  • Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

    Lorna Piatti-Farnell

About the author

Dr Lorna Piatti-Farnell is Director of the Popular Culture Research Centre at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. She is the President and Founder of the Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia. She is the author of several books, including The Vampire in Contemporary Popular Literature (2014), and has published widely in the intersecting disciplines of Gothic studies, food studies, popular media, and cultural history.


Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Consuming Gothic

  • Book Subtitle: Food and Horror in Film

  • Authors: Lorna Piatti-Farnell

  • Series Title: Palgrave Gothic

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-45051-7

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-45050-0Published: 17 March 2017

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-45051-7Published: 10 March 2017

  • Series ISSN: 2634-6214

  • Series E-ISSN: 2634-6222

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: IX, 276

  • Number of Illustrations: 10 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Film Theory, Genre, Nutrition

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