News Children's Studies at the School of Education Celebrate Book Launch

On Tuesday 19^th of November, the Discipline of Children's Studies at the School of Education was pleased to celebrate the launch of the collection of essays Eating Cultures in Children's Literature: National, International and Transnational Perspectives, edited by Dr Anna Gasperini (Lecturer in Children's Literature and Culture, University of Galway), Professor Björn Sundmark (Malmö University, Sweden) and Professor Laura Tosi (Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy).

The twelve chapters of the edited collection explore how food interlaces with national and culture identity in literature for the young, looking at how eating cultures real and imagined work within and across national boundaries to convey specific messages to the young reader. These messages are the object of analysis of the different chapters: based on both recent and well-established research in food studies and food in children's literature, the authors interrogate what it means to serve a “cultural meal” to a young person, identifying the discourses that are inscribed in the recipe, cooked and served up.

The collection is articulated into three sections: Section One, focusing on food as a vehicle of national culture; Section Two, focusing on trans/national cannibalism nightmares; and Section Three, focusing on trans/national imagined food cultures, where narratives about food become a playground to imagine the future or alternative realities. By analysing authorial or translational choices, the different chapters explore the thematic and ideological roots of the stories that authors, illustrators and translators offer their young readers.