Writing and food: about Iberian foodscapes

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Abstract:

In this lecture I will discuss aspects of Iberian foodscapes from an ecocritical perspective. Food is one of the key and most evident components of our identity: who we are, where we live, where we come from are questions linked to identity and food. The food system is the repository of traditions and collective identity and an extraordinary vehicle for self-representation and cultural exchange. I propose an exploration of key cases, representative of the Iberian identity: the loss of the last colonies as expressed in gastronomic conflicts by Emilia Pardo Bazán; an inquiry into the fluid entity of the so-called «paella» in Manuel Vázquez Montalbán; and an incursion into several examples of gastronomic poetry, between food and affection, in poets such as Josep Carner, Pablo Neruda and Miguel Hernández.

Enric Bou is Full Professor of Iberian Studies at the Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia. His teaching and research interests cover a broad range of twentieth-century Spanish Peninsular and Catalan literature but particularly involving poetry, autobiography, city and literature, and film. Most recent publications: Sabor y saber: acerca de los paisajes alimentarios ibéricos (Iberoamericana-Vervuert, 2023). Forthcoming books: Cartographies of Disappearance in Literature. From the Routine to the Extraordinary (University of Toronto Press), a bilingual edition of JV Foix surrealist poetry (Cátedra). He is currently the editor of Rassegna Iberistica.

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