TY - JOUR

T1 - Transformation Processes toward Low-Impact Pleasure

T2 - Cooking workshop: Celebrating the transformative kitchen

AU - Wennerscheid, Sophie

PY - 2024/2

Y1 - 2024/2

N2 - Taking Karen Blixen’s short story ‘‘Babette’s Feast’’ (1950) as the starting point of reflection, this article examines the role of culinary pleasure in relation to social and environmental transformations. Combining literary criticism and food studies, the article explores the transformative potential of culinary art both as it is represented in the literary text and as it might affect people in real life. While Blixen in her story makes the case for culinary pleasure as an experience of abundance and extravagance, the article argues that we need to rethink pleasure according to sustainability criteria, including frugal practices. By presenting a method that engages in processes of change by both examining a literary food text and reflecting on a cooking workshop as a speculative exercise on how to create low-impact pleasure, this contribution seeks to introduce an integrated approach to literary criticism, food studies, and socioecological transformation.

AB - Taking Karen Blixen’s short story ‘‘Babette’s Feast’’ (1950) as the starting point of reflection, this article examines the role of culinary pleasure in relation to social and environmental transformations. Combining literary criticism and food studies, the article explores the transformative potential of culinary art both as it is represented in the literary text and as it might affect people in real life. While Blixen in her story makes the case for culinary pleasure as an experience of abundance and extravagance, the article argues that we need to rethink pleasure according to sustainability criteria, including frugal practices. By presenting a method that engages in processes of change by both examining a literary food text and reflecting on a cooking workshop as a speculative exercise on how to create low-impact pleasure, this contribution seeks to introduce an integrated approach to literary criticism, food studies, and socioecological transformation.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - culinary pleasure

KW - literary food studies in practice

KW - protestant food culture

KW - sustainable eating

KW - green transformation

KW - culinary pleasure

KW - literary food studies

KW - Danish literature

KW - Karen Blixen

M3 - Journal article

VL - 24

SP - 36

EP - 45

JO - Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies

JF - Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies

SN - 1529-3262

IS - 1

M1 - 6

Y2 - 10 March 2023

ER -