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Uncovering the intricate cultural threads that inform our dietary practices

Paranatures in Culinary Culture embarks on a gastronomic odyssey, redefining foods we thought we knew and revealing the extraordinary stories of ordinary ingredients and the cultural forces shaping our diets. The book begins with a simple premise: to eat is to assimilate the outer world into the inner body, both physically and mentally. But what happens when this assimilation process goes awry? Thomas R. Parker reveals how culinary staples are not only elements of identity formation but also instruments of cultural disruption when their true nature emerges and challenges our preconceptions.

Parker explores how certain foods--bread, oysters, pigs, cheese, and wine--can both create and destabilize narratives, unsettle assimilation, and decenter Western culinary traditions. Taking inspiration from architectural historian David Gissen''s concept of "subnature" and Michel Serres''s idea of the "parasite," Parker develops the concept of paranatures: flavors, foods, and practices considered unpalatable by different societies at different times. He reveals how certain ordinary foods live parallel paranatural lives, addressing larger issues of colonial and postcolonial food theory and challenging long-held notions that cuisine was meant to uphold.

Serving up a rich blend of history, culture, and gastronomy, Parker leads readers to perceive food as an adventure, inviting them to taste the untamed side of nature. He offers a thought-provoking invitation to reconceptualize the roles and narratives we assign to the natural world and its produce, allowing us to see food, nature, and ourselves in new ways.

r develops the concept of paranatures: flavors, foods, and practices considered unpalatable by different societies at different times. He reveals how certain ordinary foods live parallel paranatural lives, addressing larger issues of colonial and postcolonial food theory and challenging long-held notions that cuisine was meant to uphold.

Serving up a rich blend of history, culture, and gastronomy, Parker leads readers to perceive food as an adventure, inviting them to taste the untamed side of nature. He offers a thought-provoking invitation to reconceptualize the roles and narratives we assign to the natural world and its produce, allowing us to see food, nature, and ourselves in new ways.

r develops the concept of paranatures: flavors, foods, and practices considered unpalatable by different societies at different times. He reveals how certain ordinary foods live parallel paranatural lives, addressing larger issues of colonial and postcolonial food theory and challenging long-held notions that cuisine was meant to uphold.

Serving up a rich blend of history, culture, and gastronomy, Parker leads readers to perceive food as an adventure, inviting them to taste the untamed side of nature. He offers a thought-provoking invitation to reconceptualize the roles and narratives we assign to the natural world and its produce, allowing us to see food, nature, and ourselves in new ways.

r develops the concept of paranatures: flavors, foods, and practices considered unpalatable by different societies at different times. He reveals how certain ordinary foods live parallel paranatural lives, addressing larger issues of colonial and postcolonial food theory and challenging long-held notions that cuisine was meant to uphold.

Serving up a rich blend of history, culture, and gastronomy, Parker leads readers to perceive food as an adventure, inviting them to taste the untamed side of nature. He offers a thought-provoking invitation to reconceptualize the roles and narratives we assign to the natural world and its produce, allowing us to see food, nature, and ourselves in new ways.

uisine was meant to uphold.

Serving up a rich blend of history, culture, and gastronomy, Parker leads readers to perceive food as an adventure, inviting them to taste the untamed side of nature. He offers a thought-provoking invitation to reconceptualize the roles and narratives we assign to the natural world and its produce, allowing us to see food, nature, and ourselves in new ways.

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Paranatures in Culinary Culture is a philosophical inquiry into the cultural paradigms surrounding traditional Western foods, specifically wine, cheese, bread, oysters, and pork. Using the prefix "para-" (as in parasite, paranormal, and paradox) to interrogate the narratives surrounding these foods, Parker (French and Francophone studies, Vassar College) takes a multidisciplinary and, at times, personal approach to subverting and challenging the traditional cultural contexts of these foods. Each chapter is devoted to a food, its historical and cultural evolution, and an accompanying argument with examples of how some aspect of that food's history or cultural presence is being subverted or changed. For example, wine is aligned with "paradox" to discuss the natural wine movement and the way some natural winemakers reject terroir; cheese is paired with "parachute" to illustrate how cheese's physical form creates a shield that allows it to be represented in art as separate from the reality of cheese; oysters with "paranormal" to discuss cultural appropriation, the anthropomorphization of oysters in literature, and their association with social class. A thought-provoking work unique in the field of food/culinary studies. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and faculty. --Skye Hardesty, Georgia State University

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Thomas R. Parker is associate professor and chair of French and Francophone studies at Vassar College. He is author of Volition, Rhetoric, and Emotion in the Work of Pascal and Tasting French Terroir: The History of an Idea .