Nathalie Cooke

Food and translation on the table: exploring the relationships between food studies and translation studies in Canada

While ‘the relationship between food, culture and translation may be unduly neglected,’ an observation made by the organisers of the First International Conference on Food and Culture in Translation, this topic has, in fact, already ignited significant innovative research in Canada. This article first addresses some of the challenges associated with research in Food Studies (FS) in a bilingual, bicultural (Anglo-Saxon and French) context. While FS has somewhat established itself as field within the larger Humanities in the English-speaking world, this is less the case in French-speaking countries. This presents a challenge for Canadian translators and FS scholars alike, as some terms associated with the field do not translate seamlessly. While the ‘problem’ of untranslatability is not necessarily novel within Translation Studies (TS), it is interesting to note that food is usually deemed a ‘universal’; here, food proves a sort of cultural litmus test, both conceptually and linguistically. Further, the article will examine some of the theoretical overlaps between FS and TS. Of particular interest here are the shared (re)conceptualisations of textuality, consumption of a cultural Other, representation and cultural mediation. These theoretical overlaps will be illustrated using examples drawn from culinary exchanges and FS research in Canada. Examples, such as the translation of Canadian menus, cookbooks and food policies will also be explored and analysed.

Measuring Out Life in Coffee Spoons: Canadian Literary Breakfasts

Two bodies of secondary literature — literary criticism about the appeal of imagined food and food studies analyses of breakfast — identify the potential of this morning meal to establish an aspirational standard. For literary critics, this aspirational standard involves the norms and conventions of the narrative world being staged, which will inevitably come under pressure as the narrative develops. For food writers, this aspirational standard involves nutritional value. Drawing from specific examples in Canadian literature, we argue that it is precisely this aspect of breakfast — as benchmark or standard of measurement — that makes it such a fruitful meal in the writers narrative toolbox. Literary breakfasts either embody tension and conflict, or set up and therefore contain the germs of tension and conflict that will drive the plot.