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Download fileFood in Shakespeare: early modern dietaries and the plays
Introduction: This book is the first detailed study of food and feeding in Shakespeare’s plays. Its
purpose is to provide modern readers and audiences of Shakespeare with an
historically accurate account of the range of, and conflicts between, contemporary
views that informed the representations of food and feeding in the plays, in
particular views about diet. It is not an exhaustive study of the plays nor is it a
definitive study of food and feeding in the early modern period. It would be neither
possible nor desirable in a book–length study to provide the reader with a roller–
coaster ride through Shakespeare’s treatment of food and feeding and so my aim
has been to consider those plays I think most clearly signal Shakespeare’s interest
in food, specifically the sliding scale from the most ordinary to the most exotic
manifestations of food and feeding, and most clearly engage with some of the other
things being written about the subject prior to and during the early modern period.
The book began life as a study of food in Shakespeare and Elizabethan culinary
culture but it soon became clear that this was too large a topic for one book and so
the main, though by no means exclusive, focus is on Shakespeare and early modern
dietaries, outlined below. Also outlined below is the early modern perception of
Galen’s model of humoral theory which dominated early modern thinking about
how the body works and the role of diet. While it is crucial to understand the early
modern view of the body and humoral theory, and reference will be made to this
throughout the book’s main chapters, this is not a study of the humours or
medicine per se. Readers who desire more detailed analyses of the humours are
advised to consult studies by Gail Kern Paster and Jonathan Sawday who, amongst
others, have located early modern ideas of selfhood in the context of that period’s
understanding of the body (Paster 2004; Sawday 1995). While these studies have
served to advance our understanding of the complex relationship between
subjectivity, the body, and social structures regulating consumption in the
Renaissance they have not attended to contemporary dietary literature, an
immensely popular and influential genre. Ken Albala’s study provides an
important introduction to the genre (Albala 2002) but this book is the first to
explore early modern dietaries to better understand the uses of food and feeding in
Shakespeare’s drama.
In ancient physiological ...
History
School
- The Arts, English and Drama
Department
- English and Drama
Citation
FITZPATRICK, J., 2007. Food in Shakespeare: early modern dietaries and the plays. Aldershot : Ashgate.Publisher
© AshgateVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publication date
2007Notes
This is the final draft of the text accepted for publication by Ashgate, but prior to copy-editing and proof correction. Details of the definitive version of this book are available at: www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754655473ISBN
9780754655473;9780754684145Language
- en