This project seeks to create a greater understanding of folk and fairy tales through the symbolism of food, with a preliminary focus on grains and domestic baking imagery and expanding to a wider focus on multiple food motifs in fairy tale. It will also map food motifs in folk and fairy tales using a historical compass, connecting these symbols to the availability and production of food stuffs in eras where significant changes in variants affect meaning or interpretation, or detailing where food-centric tales emerge in times of famine or plenty, import or export, etc. The project also aims to provide a catalogue or database for folk and fairy tale scholars in relation to food imagery, categorizing which stories include which symbols and motifs, where they change, and possible historical influences on specific stories.
(Supervisors: Prof Bill Gray and Dr Andrew Teverson (University of Kingston))