Caribbean Food Cultures

'Caribbean Food Cultures' approaches the matter of food from the perspectives of anthropology, sociology, cultural and literary studies. Its strong interdisciplinary focus provides new insights into symbolic and material food practices beyond eating, drinking, cooking, or etiquette. The contributors discuss culinary aesthetics and neo/colonial gazes on the Caribbean in literary documents, audiovisual media, and popular images. They investigate the negotiation of communities and identities through the preparation, consumption, and commodification of 'authentic' food. Furthermore, the authors emphasize the influence of underlying socioeconomic power relations for the reinvention of Caribbean and Western identities in the wake of migration and transnationalism. The anthology features contributions by renowned scholars such as Rita De Maeseneer and Fabio Parasecoli who read Hispano-Caribbean literatures and popular culture through the lens of food studies.

Wiebke Beushausen is a research assistant in the junior research group 'From the Caribbean to North America and Back' and PhD candidate in literary studies at Heidelberg University. Anne Brüske (PhD) is the head of the junior research group 'From the Caribbean to North America and Back' at Heidelberg University since October 2010. She holds a PhD in Romance literature from Heidelberg University (2008) and has taught in Basel, Lyon and Heidelberg. AnaSofia Commichau is a research assistant in the junior research group 'From the Caribbean to North America and Back' and PhD candidate in literary studies at Heidelberg University. Patrick Helber studied History and Political Science in Tübingen and Dublin, and completed his PhD in 2014 in Modern and Contemporary History in Heidelberg. He lives in Berlin and is the moderator of a radio program on Caribbean popular culture, among other activities. Sinah Kloß is a research assistant in the junior research group 'From the Caribbean to North America and Back' and a PhD candidate in Social Anthropology at Heidelberg University.