Introduction

In recent years, Food Studies has developed into a solid and distinctly academic field of studies (Albala 2013). The relationship between representational structures – such as literature – and the uses of food metaphors that these make has gained significant interest from the academic community, in single disciplinary, as well as interdisciplinary, and national, as well as transnational, contexts. ‘Literary food studies’ can be viewed as a new and emerging field of enquiry, which re-evaluates, rethinks and rediscovers the importance of food and eating in understanding the ways we live and communicate. Considering the socio-cultural uses of consumption and its representations, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz argues that food serves “as an indicator of social identity, from region to ethnicity, from class to age or gender” (1993, 90). It is, therefore, essential to address not only the widely spread place occupied by food in literary narratives, but also its ability to convey cultural messages in a variety of literary-related contexts. In response to the scholarly interest in the field, this Companion seeks to cover the relationship between food and literature in the broadest sense.