LuAnne Roth
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496810847
- eISBN:
- 9781496810892
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496810847.003.0011
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
Much research on “comfort food” focuses on the emotional and physiological effect of consuming food in order to positively arouse emotions or relieve negative psychological states. This paper focuses ...
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Much research on “comfort food” focuses on the emotional and physiological effect of consuming food in order to positively arouse emotions or relieve negative psychological states. This paper focuses on the role of memory in comfort (and discomfort) food by comparing key cinematic food scenes with essays reflecting on foods laden with emotional, autobiographical, and symbolic significance (aka Proust’s “madeleine”). Film’s ability to juxtapose image and sound—ingestion and associated flashbacks—renders the medium uniquely adept at representing organoleptic properties, the emotional weight of eating, social surrogacy, and food’s profound ability to evoke memories both positive and negative. Less
Much research on “comfort food” focuses on the emotional and physiological effect of consuming food in order to positively arouse emotions or relieve negative psychological states. This paper focuses on the role of memory in comfort (and discomfort) food by comparing key cinematic food scenes with essays reflecting on foods laden with emotional, autobiographical, and symbolic significance (aka Proust’s “madeleine”). Film’s ability to juxtapose image and sound—ingestion and associated flashbacks—renders the medium uniquely adept at representing organoleptic properties, the emotional weight of eating, social surrogacy, and food’s profound ability to evoke memories both positive and negative.
