Award Date
5-15-2026
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
English
First Committee Member
Katherine Walker
Second Committee Member
Timothy Erwin
Third Committee Member
Kelly Mays
Fourth Committee Member
Tanachai Mark Padoongpatt
Number of Pages
187
Abstract
This dissertation examines how food operates as a material and symbolic medium through which individual and national identities are constructed in the English novel from the eighteenth century to the twentieth century. By tracing how eating, provisioning, and taste change across historical periods, the dissertation demonstrates that food provides a uniquely illuminating lens through which to understand the making and unmaking of English identity. Through close readings of Robinson Crusoe, Roxana, Emma, Brideshead Revisited, and Coming Up for Air, this project follows a long arc in which food moves from an overt concern with survival to a marker of national pride and stability, to an object of memory and nostalgia amid cultural decline. In Defoe, food becomes a foundational act of survival. In Austen, domestic provisioning reflects moral taste and an idealized national order. In Waugh elaborate meals mark class nostalgia and the fragility of English identity. Finally, in Orwell, commercialization of food production and memory expose tension of war and the deterioration of cultural cohesion. By situating these novels together, the dissertation reveals patterns that single-period studies limit. Food’s fluctuation between necessity and taste and its responsiveness to historical events ultimately proves that food sustains more than the body. It reinforces identities that individuals and nations imagine for themselves. Reading the English novel through food illustrates how identity is lived, contested, and remembered across time.
Controlled Subject
Food--Symbolic aspects; Group identity; British
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | English Language and Literature | Literature in English, British Isles
File Format
File Size
1845 KB
Degree Grantor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Language
English
Repository Citation
Pollaro, Danielle, "Consuming Identities: Food, Appetite, and the Making of the British Self, 1719-1945" (2026). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 5607.
https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations/5607
Rights
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