4th Italy Day: Matters of taste: Food and politics in Italy

Who doesn't think of Italian food, pizza, pasta and gelato when they think of Italy? But food is never just food. From the feasts of the late Middle Ages with their show dishes to today's state banquets, food proves to be a highly political affair, and not only there. As cultural practices, gastronomy and the culinary arts are embedded in political, social, aesthetic and artistic contexts. These will be explored with a view to Italy and Italian food and political culture and their interrelationships.

The fourth Italy Day at the University of Kassel brings together lectures by five Italian and German academics who will discuss Italian "matters of taste" from philosophical, historical, literary and artistic perspectives. The lectures will discuss the art of eating from an aesthetic-theoretical perspective, food in Italian painting, cookbooks and nation-building, the Italianization of international taste and Italian food in literature and film.

Program:

13:00 Introduction

13:20 Prof. Dr. Nicola Perullo (Università di Scienze Gastronomiche di Pollenzo): Cibo, cucina, arte

14:00-14:30 BREAK

14:30 Dr. Anke Auch (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg): Food and drink hold body and soul together - and the nation.

and soul together - and the nation. Pellegrino Artusi's "La scienza in cucina e l'arte di

mangiar bene" (1891) as a contribution to nation building

15:10 Sabine Knappe (historian, food journalist) The Italianization of taste. How simple enjoyment became an international culinary trend

15:50-16:20 BREAK

16:20 Prof. Dr. Christine Ott (Goethe University Frankfurt): "Spaghetti-eaters" yesterday and today. Literary and cinematic meals in the transculturality debate

17:00 Prof. Dr. Martina Sitt (Kunsthochschule Kassel): "A Remarkable Kitchen" - Examples from Early Renaissance Italian Painting