Den äckliga maten

Abstract

In this artide food is analysed as a kind of language or deep structure, a structure of meaning to be interpreted. Food is about work and consumption, something we produce (cook) and consume (eat). Both activities are related to qnestions of identity with the focus on eating or the process of incorporation - a mediation between nature and culture, body and soul, nutrition and meaning. The potential risk of letting food pass the börder between the outside and the inside of the body is related to a German pun that states: "Man ist was man isst". The universe of the infant is not yet divided into cultural distinctions between the unedible or the edible, a fundamental distinction in human cultures. The switching between hunger and satisfaction is from an early age the basis for primary distincions such as outside/inside and me/not-me. This basic experience is related to Julia Kristeva's concept (oral) abjection; a deep-seated experience of horror and anxiety, of loathing and disgust (for food), circling the borders of identity. Literary texts are analysed from this point of view. In Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman we meet a young woman trapped in a gradually expanding and finally an all-embracing aversion against food. In Marianne Fastvold's short story "dinner is served" we are confronted with abjection in relation to food as well as gender representing the other/stranger - and the possible transgression from disgust and repulsion to pleasure and enjoyment.