Cultures of Taste Theories of Appetite: Eating Romanticism

310 Pages·2004·1.64 MB·English

by  Timothy Morton

Cultures of Taste/Theories
of Appetite
Eating Romanticism
Edited by
Timothy Morton
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Cultures of Taste/Theories of
Appetite: Eating Romanticism
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Cultures of Taste/Theories of
Appetite: Eating Romanticism
Edited by
Timothy Morton
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CULTURESOFTASTE/THEORIESOFAPPETITE
© Timothy Morton,2004
All rights reserved.No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published 2004 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™
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ISBN 0–312–29301–1 hardback
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cultures of taste/theories of appetite / [edited] by Timothy Morton.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–312–29301–1 (hc)—ISBN 0–312–29304–6 (pbk)
1.Food habits.2.Food preferences.3.Taste.4.Appetite.5.Food habits
in literature.6.Dinners and dining in literature.I.Morton,Timothy,1968–
GT2850.C86 2004
394.1(cid:2)2—dc22 2003058081
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First edition:January,2004
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Printed in the United States of America.
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Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Notes on Contributors xi
Preface xv
Introduction Consumption as Performance:The Emergence of
the Consumer in the Romantic Period 1
Timothy Morton
Part I Constructions,Simulations,Cultures 19
Chapter 1. William Henry Ireland:From Forgery
to Fish ’n’Chips 21
Nick Groom
Chapter 2. The Taste of Paradise:The Fruits of
Romanticism in the Empire 41
Timothy Fulford
Chapter 3. The Politics of the Platter:Charlotte
Smith and the “Science of Eating” 59
Penny Bradshaw
Chapter 4. Sustaining the Romantic and Racial Self:
Eating People in the “South Seas” 77
Peter J.Kitson
Chapter 5. Eating Romantic England:The Foot and
Mouth Epidemic and Its Consequences 97
Nicholas Roe
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vi Contents
Part II Waiter,There’s a Trope in My Soup:
Close Readings 113
Chapter 6. Hegel,Eating:Schelling and the Carnivorous
Virility of Philosophy 115
David L.Clark
Chapter 7. Byron’s World of Zest 141
Jane Stabler
Chapter 8. Beyond the Inconsumable:The Catastrophic
Sublime and the Destruction of Literature in
Keats’s The Fall of Hyperion and Shelley’s
The Triumph of life 161
Arkady Plotnitsky
Part III Disgust,Digestion,Thought 181
Chapter 9. The Endgame of Taste:Keats,Sartre,Beckett 183
Denise Gigante
Chapter 10. A “Friendship of Taste”:The Aesthetics of
Eating Well in Kant’s Anthropology from
a Pragmatic Point of View 203
Peter Melville
Chapter 11. (In)digestible Material:Illness and Dialectic in
Hegel’s The Philosophy of Nature 217
Tilottama Rajan
Chapter 12. Romantic Dietetics! Or,Eating Your Way to
a New You 237
Paul Youngquist
Afterword Let Them Eat Romanticism:Materialism,
Ideology,and Diet Studies 257
Timothy Morton
Index 277
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List of Illustrations
James Gillray,A Voluptuary under the Horrors of Digestion
(London,1792).Copyright the British Museum,London. xvii
James Gillray,Temperance Enjoying a Frugal Meal (London,1792).
Copyright the British Museum,London. xix
James Gillray,Substitutes for Bread (London,1795).Copyright
the British Museum,London. 61
James Gillray,Germans Eating Sour-Krout (sic) (London,1803).
Copyright the British Museum,London. 260
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Acknowledgments
F
irst and foremost, I would like to thank Denise Gigante for her
inspiring and unstinting work on early drafts of this book.Thanks
to my superb and varied contributors for their constant attention to
their work.My discussions with David Clark have been particularly spir-
ited and I extend my gratitude to him for his warmth and encouragement.
I would like to thank the University of Colorado and in particular the
Graduate Committee on the Arts and Humanities for their award of a
Faculty Fellowship during the academic year 2001–02,during which I had
the chance to do major work on this project.I have also been supported
by a generous subvention from the Dean’s Committee on Excellence to
help with reproduction costs.This book was seen into production by the
consistent expertise of Kristi Long, Melissa Nosal, Rose Raz, and Ian
Steinberg.
An earlier version of Denise Gigante’s essay was published in
Romanticism on the Net(2002) and Studies in Romanticism(2001).An earlier
version of Tim Fulford’s essay was published in European Romantic Review
(Fall 2000).
I would like to thank David Simpson for his unfailing support and
cogent,insightful advice.I am grateful to Jeffrey Cox and the Center for
the Humanities and the Arts at CU Boulder for their timely invitation to
me to present my work for this volume at their work-in-progress seminar:
in particular I would like to thank the participants Bud Coleman,Andrew
Cowell,Steven Epstein,Bruce Holsinger,and John Stevenson.Iwould also
like to thank Brad Johnson and Alice den Otter. Jamie Oliver’s recipe
books provided much of my culinary reading and practice while I was
preparing this volume:can I recommend his very fine risottos? Finally,my
head and stomach would have come apart long before now if it had not
been for the inspiration of my wife Kate,who has worked with me well
beyond the call of duty.