<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This essay studies scenes that focus on food and eating in the films <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_ewcp-2019-0014_ref_004_w2aab3b8c13b1b7b1ab1ab4Aa"><italic>Chocolat</italic> (2000)</xref> and <italic>I Served the King of England</italic> (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_ewcp-2019-0014_ref_010_w2aab3b8c13b1b7b1ab1ac10Aa"><italic>Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále</italic>, 2006</xref>). To assess whether or not they constitute food porn we compare and contrast such scenes with the description of an unwholesome recipe for cannibalistic eating in <italic>Titus Andronicus</italic>, which anticipates our contemporary food obsession. At its most basic (and controversial), food porn names the alluring visualisation of certain foodstuffs, which renders food the object of erotically tinged desire. Serving different purposes in the two films, such eroticisation of food can be more than self-referential insofar as it indicates human interactions framed as power relations. Showing chocolate making and eating, in <italic>Chocolat</italic>, actually visualises a woman’s exertion of power over the women and their husbands in a bigoted French village in 1959, intended to awaken the people’s benumbed desire. Not food proper is the object of desire in the Czech film, but the young woman served up as ocular side dish to the moguls dining in a stylish Prague restaurant before the outburst of WWII. By contrast, food eroticisation is completely absent in Shakespeare; at stake is a verbal (and implicitly visual) concern with the transformation of flesh and body parts into ingredients for seemingly festive consumption. Visualising food, in <italic>Titus</italic>, implicitly visualises the reclaim and exertion of power in the fictional Roman polity. In all these cases, the concern with food vectorises power relations and may fluidise gendered hierarchies, an issue which food porn scholarship rarely addresses.</p></abstract>

This essay studies scenes that focus on food and eating in the films Chocolat (2000) and I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále, 2006). To assess whether or not they constitute food porn we compare and contrast such scenes with the description of an unwholesome recipe for cannibalistic eating in Titus Andronicus, which anticipates our contemporary food obsession. At its most basic (and controversial), food porn names the alluring visualisation of certain foodstuffs, which renders food the object of erotically tinged desire. Serving different purposes in the two films, such eroticisation of food can be more than self-referential insofar as it indicates human interactions framed as power relations. Showing chocolate making and eating, in Chocolat, actually visualises a woman’s exertion of power over the women and their husbands in a bigoted French village in 1959, intended to awaken the people’s benumbed desire. Not food proper is the object of desire in the Czech film, but the young woman served up as ocular side dish to the moguls dining in a stylish Prague restaurant before the outburst of WWII. By contrast, food eroticisation is completely absent in Shakespeare; at stake is a verbal (and implicitly visual) concern with the transformation of flesh and body parts into ingredients for seemingly festive consumption. Visualising food, in Titus, implicitly visualises the reclaim and exertion of power in the fictional Roman polity. In all these cases, the concern with food vectorises power relations and may fluidise gendered hierarchies, an issue which food porn scholarship rarely addresses.

Food Porn in <italic>Titus Andronicus</italic>, <italic>Chocolat</italic> and <italic>I Served the King of England</italic> (<italic>Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále</italic>)

East-West Cultural Passage

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

This essay studies scenes that focus on food and eating in the films Chocolat (2000) and I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále, 2006)....

Food Porn in Titus Andronicus, Chocolat and I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále)

Published Online: Mar 17, 2020

Page range: 96 - 120

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ewcp-2019-0014

Keywords
(Shakespeare), (director Lasse Hallström, 2000), (, director Jiří Menzel, 2006), food porn

© 2019 Estella Ciobanu et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Food Porn in Titus Andronicus, Chocolat and I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále)

Published Online: Mar 17, 2020

Page range: 96 - 120

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ewcp-2019-0014

Keywords(Shakespeare), (director Lasse Hallström, 2000), (, director Jiří Menzel, 2006), food porn

© 2019 Estella Ciobanu et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
(Shakespeare), (director Lasse Hallström, 2000), (, director Jiří Menzel, 2006), food porn