Excessive Abundance or Abundant Excess? Representations of Food in Italian and Italian-American Film, Literature, and Media

NeMLA 2024--Boston, MA March 7-10th, 2024

Abstract deadline: September 30th, 2023

Response deadline: October 15th, 2023

Continuing last year’s conversation, this panel proposes to focus on representations of food in Italian and Italian American Cinema, Literature and Media.

Taking this year’s theme, Surplus, into consideration it seems only fitting to discuss food. The idea of a food surplus can imbue or minds with images of a bumper crop in the time of climate change, a full table for a family otherwise facing food scarcity, but it can also lead us into the decadence and excess we can see in various literary and cinematic works by notable authors and filmmakers.

This year we invite you to submit papers focusing on food in the context of Italian and/or Italian-American film, literature, and media, considering but not limited to the following themes:

· Abundance

· Scarcity

· Migration/immigration

· Environment/agriculture

· Minority communities

Please submit an abstract of 300 words max to: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/20324 

For any questions, please email Irene Hatzopoulos (ireneh@ucr.edu)