The Polyphony of Food explores food as a multiple discourse in the context of Abraham Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of human needs and motivations. In Maslow’s theory, food as a basic psychological need belongs to the tier of D (deficit) needs. However, it is the author’s assumption that food and eating cut across the whole hierarchical board of human motivations. In many cases, food takes on compensatory functions and stands for other needs, thus satisfying the entire range of D, and even of B (being) needs. Food is an expression of material culture and marks dominant social distinctions in society, such as gender, class, religion, age, profession and ethnicity. Apart from being highly ritualized, food serves to highlight what people find beautiful or ugly, what they view as acceptable and unacceptable, proper or improper. Numerous illustrations and anecdotes aim to prove that food and meals are a means to feel safe and secure, to affirm cultural and social identity, and to serve as a vehicle of bonding, affiliation, belonging, acceptance, love and esteem as well as a means of self-actualization. A special emphasis is placed on the concept of food appropriateness which is linked to politeness and viewed from several standpoints.

This volume examines food as subject, form, landscape, polemic, and aesthetic statement in literature. With essays analyzing food and race, queer food, intoxicated poets, avant-garde food writing, vegetarianism, the recipe, the supermarket, food comics, and vampiric eating, this collection brings together fascinating work from leading scholars in the field. It is the first volume to offer an overview of literary food studies and reflect on its origins, developments, and applications. Taking up maxims such as 'we are what we eat', it traces the origins of literary food studies and examines key questions in cultural texts from different global literary traditions. It charts the trajectories of the field in relation to work in critical race studies, postcolonial studies, and children's literature, positing an omnivorous method for the field at large.

"Tracks the interplay of creativity, competition, desire, and nostalgia in the discrete ways people relate to food and cuisine in different societies"--

An exploration of polyphony and the perspective it offers on our own polyphonic brains. Polyphony—the interweaving of simultaneous sounds—is a crucial aspect of music that has deep implications for how we understand the mind. In Polyphonic Minds, Peter Pesic examines the history and significance of “polyphonicity”—of “many-voicedness”—in human experience. Pesic presents the emergence of Western polyphony, its flowering, its horizons, and the perspective it offers on our own polyphonic brains. When we listen to polyphonic music, how is it that we can hear several different things at once? How does a single mind experience those things as a unity (a motet, a fugue) rather than an incoherent jumble? Pesic argues that polyphony raises fundamental issues for philosophy, theology, literature, psychology, and neuroscience—all searching for the apparent unity of consciousness in the midst of multiple simultaneous experiences. After tracing the development of polyphony in Western music from ninth-century church music through the experimental compositions of Glenn Gould and John Cage, Pesic considers the analogous activity within the brain, the polyphonic “music of the hemispheres” that shapes brain states from sleep to awakening. He discusses how neuroscientists draw on concepts from polyphony to describe the “neural orchestra” of the brain. Pesic’s story begins with ancient conceptions of God’s mind and ends with the polyphonic personhood of the human brain and body. An enhanced e-book edition allows the sound examples to be played by a touch.

The links between religion and food have been known for centuries, and yet we rarely examine or understand the nature of the relationship between food and spirituality, or food and sin. Drawing on literature, politics, and philosophy as well as theology, this book unlocks the role food has played within religious tradition. A fascinating book tracing the centuries-old links between theology and food, showing religion in a new and intriguing light Draws on examples from different religions: the significance of the apple in the Christian Bible and the eating of bread as the body of Christ; the eating and fasting around Ramadan for Muslims; and how the dietary laws of Judaism are designed to create an awareness of living in the time and space of the Torah Explores ideas from the fields of literature, politics, and philosophy, as well as theology Takes seriously the idea that food matters, and that the many aspects of eating – table fellowship, culinary traditions, the aesthetic, ethical and political dimensions of food – are important and complex, and throw light on both religion and our relationship to food

In the 21st century, hybrids (such as hybrid war, hybrid regimes, hybrid cars, and hybrid identities, among others) have become all-pervasive, and the computer term “mashup” has turned into a symbol of hybridity. This book highlights the phenomenon of hybridity and hybridization from a variety of angles and perspectives – in social and cultural practices, education and fiction – and notes the connecting patterns between hybridization in different fields of human endeavour. Perhaps the most important hallmark of our age is the crossover into the virtual. The spread of hybrids in “post-reality” has snowballed due to the Internet and the ease of the web-based dissemination of information and disinformation. New entities, such as fake news, have been put together using collage techniques with the result that make-believe events produce real-life effects. Without the special analysis provided in this book, this non/reality generated to manipulate people is unlikely to be differentiated from authentic stories.

Eating and drinking are essential to life and therefore of great interest to the historian. As well as having a real fascination in their own right, both activities are an integral part of the both social and economic history. Yet food and drink, especially in the middle ages, have received less than their proper share of attention. The essays in this volume approach their subject from a variety of angles: from the reality of starvation and the reliance on 'fast food' of those without cooking facilities, to the consumption of an English lady's household and the career of a cook in the French royal household.