Representing Italy Through Food

by Peter Naccarato (Editor), Zachary Nowak (Editor), Elgin K. Eckert (Editor)

Overview

Italy has long been romanticized as an idyllic place. Italian food and foodways play an important part in this romanticization – from bountiful bowls of fresh pasta to bottles of Tuscan wine. While such images oversimplify the complex reality of modern Italy, they are central to how Italy is imagined by Italians and non-Italians alike.

Representing Italy through Food is the first book to examine how these perceptions are constructed, sustained, promoted, and challenged. Recognizing the power of representations to construct reality, the book explores how Italian food and foodways are represented across the media – from literature to film and television, from cookbooks to social media, and from marketing campaigns to advertisements. Bringing together established scholars such as Massimo Montanari and Ken Albala with emerging scholars in the field, the thirteen chapters offer new perspectives on Italian food and culture. Featuring both local and global perspectives – which examine Italian food in the United States, Australia and Israel – the book reveals the power of representations across historical, geographic, socio-economic, and cultural boundaries and asks if there is anything that makes Italy unique.

An important contribution to our understanding of the enduring power of Italy, Italian culture and Italian food – both in Italy and beyond. Essential reading for students and scholars in food studies, Italian studies, media studies, and cultural studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474280419
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/09/2017
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Peter Naccarato is Professor of English and World Literatures at Marymount Manhattan College, USA
Zachary Nowak is Associate Director for the Food & Sustainability Program at The Umbra Institute, Italy
Elgin K. Eckert is Assistant Professor for Italian and Cultural Studies at The Umbra Institute, Italy

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgments

Editors' Introduction: Presenting Food, Representing Italy
Peter Naccarato (Marymount Manhattan College, USA), Zachary Nowak, and Elgin Eckert (The Umbra Institute, Italy)

Part I: (Re)presenting Iconic Italy

1. The Belated Revenge of Today's Farmers
Massimo Montanari (University of Bologna, Italy)

2. Authenticity all'italiana: Food Discourses, Diasporas, and the Limits of Cuisine in Contemporary Italy
Aliza Wong (Texas Tech University, USA)

3. Slow Food Movement and Facebook: The Paradox of Advocating Slow Living through Fast Technology
Ginevra Adamoli (Independent Scholar, Italy)

Part II: Representing Italy in Literature and Film

4. Casalinghitudine: Recipes for Political History
Ernesto Livorni (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)

5. Inspector Montalbano a tavola: Food in Andrea Camilleri's Police Fiction
Elgin Eckert (The Umbra Institute, Italy)

6. There's a Mobster in the Kitchen: Cooking, Eating, and Complications of Gender in Mafia Movies and Television
Peter Naccarato (Marymount Manhattan College, USA)

7. In cibo veritas: Food Preparation and Consumption in Ozpetek's “Queer” Films Elgin Eckert and Zachary Nowak (The Umbra Institute, Italy)
Part III: Marketing, Packaging, and Advertising Italy
9. Semiotics of Sauce: National Identity and Naming of Pasta Sauces Maryann Tebben (Bard College, USA)
10. Producing Consumers: How 1950's Food Advertisements in La cucina italiana Evoke and Create Gendered Bodies Diana Garvin (Cornell University, USA)
11. A Kitchen with a View: Perspectives on Italian Gender Roles in Barilla Food Commercials 1950-1970 Antonella Valoroso (The Umbra Institute, Italy)
Part IV: Global Representations of Italy
12. Italian Food in the United States Ken Albala (University of the Pacific, USA)
13. Leggo's not-so-Autentico: Toward an Alternative Account of 20th Century Italo-Australian Foodways Rachel Ankeny & Tania Cammarano, University of Adelaide, Australia
14. Italian Food in Israel: Stuffing Up in an Imagined Mediterranean Nir Avieli (Ben Gurion University, Israel)
15. Afterword: Italy Represented Peter Naccarato (Marymount Manhattan College, USA), Zachary Nowak, and Elgin Eckert (The Umbra Institute, Italy)
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"This intriguing interdisciplinary collection explores representations of Italian foodways in advertising, film, literature, cookbooks, and social media to address questions surrounding national identity, gender roles, change, and authenticity. Its detailed and fascinating case studies enrich understanding of Italian identity and food habits as they play out at home and are re-imagined around the globe." --Carole Counihan, Millersville University, USA

"This volume is a valuable addition to the field of Italian food studies. Its great virtue is giving equal importance to the use of food to represent the country to its own inhabitants, and the centrality of food in representations of Italy abroad." --Jonathan Morris, University of Hertfordshire, UK

"Representing Italy Through Food is a unique multi-disciplinary collection that looks at the ways in which Italian identity is constructed and promoted through food in Italy and abroad. The editors have brought together a collection of essays by Italian and international authors that range from literary representation of Italian food to the use of technology in promoting the Slow Food Movement. This volume is sure to be a useful resource for the Food Studies and Italian Studies classroom." --Rachel Black, Connecticut College, USA

From the Publisher