Academic Centre
The Faculty of Humanities of the University of Latvia in the framework of Fundamental and Applied Research Project (No. lzp-2019/1-0294) National Identity: Gastropoetic Aspect. Historical, International and Interdisciplinary Contexts invites submissions for the international academic conference Representation of Food in Literature and Culture at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Latvia and online 25 – 27 November 2021.
We invite researchers from humanities, arts, social and other fields of science to participate in the academic conference with papers focusing on the importance of food as referred to in literature or manifested in other arts, everyday practices and household culture.
The conference is initiated on the basis of the fundamental and applied research project National Identity – Gastropoetic Aspect carried out by the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Latvia. This research project explores how the representation of eating and drinking, food and beverages, cooking, meals, taste, pleasure and hospitality in Latvian and Latvian minority literature and cookbooks has changed over time. Researchers have drawn attention to how these different perspectives mutually correlate and reveal the individual and national identities. When analysing the changing modes of food representation, parallels are found with social and historical transformations. The project investigates food not only in Latvian, but also in German, Russian and Jewish literature created in Latvia, as well as compares the literature of Latvian and Lithuanian contemporary economic diaspora.
Project participants have chosen to carry out studies in the research field of gastropoetics. This concept was first used in Parama Roy’s 2002 study Reading Communities and Culinary Communities: The Gastropoetics of the South Asian Diaspora. A similar concept is supported by the internet magazine Epikur. Journal für Gastrosophie. The concept of ‘gastrosophie’ is used in philosophy and aesthetics, while gastropoetics denotes a connection with literature research. The framework of gastropoetics demands that the metaliterary and literary context is taken into consideration.
Food is closely linked to national identity – belonging to an ethnic group is often defined through traditional cuisine. National identity is a social construction: the communication of individuals and groups is of particular importance in the formation and maintenance of identity, and identity is also socially determined, as traditional public institutions, including the community, family, educational system, mass media, etc., play an important role in shaping it.
By using the theoretical approaches of discourse analysis, microhistory and new historicism, as well as postcolonialism and cultural anthropology, semiotics, etc., it is possible to raise awareness of the structure of society, the various aspects of sociality, and the impact of political and economic power on society. New fundamental and disruptive changes, such as the ones brought about by the pandemic, pose new challenges in food research.
In the conference, the intertextuality of food research is extended to other disciplines of culture, including art, theatre, cinematography, music to cover as wide a spectrum as possible and reach beyond Latvia’s historical or contemporary situation.
Submissions for the conference may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- food in literature and art – from physiological necessity to the pleasures of the palate;
- food in literature and art as a sign of national identity and an aspect of international communication;
- food in literature and art as an element of the emigration and exile experience;
- cultural, historical and household aspects in Latvian and foreign cookbooks and food culture;
- food in traditional and popular culture;
- food and language.
We invite the submissions of proposals for:
- individual (collaborative) papers;
- panels (3–4 papers).
The working language during the conference is Latvian and English.
Please submit the proposal in the language that the paper will be presented at.
Due to the epidemiological situation, the conference will be held on site and/or remotely.
The conference will be recorded and available for viewing online and later on the YouTube channel of the University of Latvia.
Participation in the conference is free of charge.
Submit the proposal by 2 August 2021.
Authors of the accepted papers will be notified by 15 August 2021.
After the conference a double-blind peer reviewed collective monograph Food and Culture will be published. Manuscripts are due by 13 December 2021.
Link to the application form: https://ej.uz/gastropoetika.
In case of further queries please do not hesitate to contact us at gastropoetika@lu.lv.
Organising committee:
Maija Burima, Dr. philol., Daugavpils University
Zanda Gūtmane, Dr. philol., Liepaja University
Justyna Prusinowska, Dr. philol., Adam Mickiewicz University
Pavel Štoll, Ph.D., Charles University in Prague
Laura Laurušaitė, Dr. philol., Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore
Sigita Kušnere, Mg. philol., University of Latvia
Astra Spalvēna, Dr. art., University of Latvia
Ieva Kalniņa, Dr. philol. University of Latvia
