Nothing More Delicious: Food as Temptation in Children's Literature

<p>Although many critics and theorists, including Roland Barthes, have discussed food in literature, little attention has been paid to the food-as-temptation story in children’s literature. In Lewis Carroll’s <em>Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland</em>, C.S. Lewis’ <em>The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe</em>, Roald Dahl’s <em>Charlie and the Chocolate Factory</em>, and Neil Gaiman’s <em>Coraline</em> food is used as temptation for child protagonists, a tool to lure them into doing evil deeds or being generally mischievous. Some characters, like Alice, act as the tempters as well as the tempted, while others, like Edmund, wait passively for rescue. <em>Coraline</em> breaks this model by featuring a protagonist that not only saves her kidnapped parents by using food as a weapon, even after she is tempted by food herself. <em>Coraline</em> represents a more contemporary version of the food-as-temptation because its protagonist’s agency is more complex. <em>Coraline</em> dictates her relationship with food, which makes her differ from other protagonists in other fantastical children’s works.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts in English (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis (open access)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Literature and Philosophy

Year dc:date.available

2013

Author dc:creator

• Stephens, Mary A.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Caren Town
• Dustin Anderson

• ETD
• Children's literature
• Food
• Narnia
• Lewis Carroll
• Gaiman Dahl
• Literature in English, British Isles

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/50

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu:etd-1050