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Chapter 3 - Food for Thought in Mediterranean Crime Fiction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2023

Barbara Pezzotti
Affiliation:
Monash University, Victoria
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Summary

Chapter 3 shows that in the Mediterranean novel, food becomes a powerful tool through which Mediterranean writers deconstruct homogeneous national identities and celebrate transculturality in the Mediterranean area. In spite of significant differences, some common traits emerge. These include the representation of eating and drinking habits as a collective practice that involves an extended family, including non-national individuals often belonging to the Mediterranean basin; the portrayal of meal sharing as an event that facilitates communication among different cultures, and a way to celebrate a more extensive Mediterranean culture and identity; the use of food as a tool to present a critique of assumed formulations of regional and national identities; and finally, through the contrast between tradition and modernity, food is used to express anxiety for cultures perceived to be under threat from external, and often global, forces. The chapter concludes that food in Mediterranean crime fiction celebrates unity and a common culture in the Mediterranean area, bringing down national borders and expressing once more the transcultural nature of Mediterranean crime fiction.

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Chapter
Information
Mediterranean Crime Fiction
Transcultural Narratives in and around the ‘Great Sea'
, pp. 96 - 119
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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