Bloomsbury Representing Italy Through Food

Italy has long been romanticized as an idyllic place. Italian food and foodways play an important part in this romanticization from bountiful bowls of fresh pasta to bottles of Tuscan wine. While such images oversimplify the complex reality of modern Italy, they are central to how Italy is imagined by Italians and non-Italians alike. Representing Italy through Food is the first book to examine how these perceptions are constructed, sustained, promoted, and challenged. Recognizing the power of representations to construct reality, the book explores how Italian food and foodways are represented across the media from literature to film and television, from cookbooks to social media, and from marketing campaigns to advertisements. Bringing together established scholars such as Massimo Montanari and Ken Albala with emerging scholars in the field, the thirteen chapters offer new perspectives on Italian food and culture. Featuring both local and global perspectives which examine Italian food in the United States, Australia and Israel the book reveals the power of representations across historical, geographic, socio-economic, and cultural boundaries and asks if there is anything that makes Italy unique. An important contribution to our understanding of the enduring power of Italy, Italian culture and Italian food both in Italy and beyond. Essential reading for students and scholars in food studies, Italian studies, media studies, and cultural studies. Review This intriguing interdisciplinary collection explores representations of Italian foodways in advertising, film, literature, cookbooks, and social media to address questions surrounding national identity, gender roles, change, and authenticity. Its detailed and fascinating case studies enrich understanding of Italian identity and food habits as they play out at home and are re-imagined around the globe. --Carole Counihan, Millersville University, USA This volume is a valuable addition to the field of Italian food studies. Its great virtue is giving equal importance to the use of food to represent the country to its own inhabitants, and the centrality of food in representations of Italy abroad. --Jonathan Morris, University of Hertfordshire, UK Representing Italy Through Food is a unique multi-disciplinary collection that looks at the ways in which Italian identity is constructed and promoted through food in Italy and abroad. The editors have brought together a collection of essays by Italian and international authors that range from literary representation of Italian food to the use of technology in promoting the Slow Food Movement. This volume is sure to be a useful resource for the Food Studies and Italian Studies classroom. --Rachel Black, Connecticut College, USA About the Author Peter Naccarato is Professor of English and Chair of the Humanities Division at Marymount Manhattan College, USA. Zachary Nowak is is pursuing his doctorate in American Studies at Harvard University. He is also the Associate Director for the Food Studies Program at the Umbra Institute, in Perugia, Italy. His research focuses on Italian food history. He is author of Truffle: A Global History (2014), the translator of Why Architects Still Draw (2014), and the editor and translator of Inventing the Pizzeria (Bloomsbury, 2015).