Meal of The Day After Tomorrow. Ideas about Food and Nourishment in Post-Apocalyptic Movies

Abstract

The paper considers cultural ideas about food and nutrition in movies depicting a post-apocalyptic world. Food/nutrition in these movies functions as a metaphor which is used to depict the future regression of human civilization to a hypothetical previous stage of development. Food also becomes a powerful symbol in these movies, it is used to outline the boundary (but is also a mediator) between order (civilization) and chaos (the post-apocalyptic society of the future), to underline the contrast between us (we, humans) and others (them, non-humans). The questions posed in this paper are concerned with the kind of food which is described utilizing the language of the end of the world, and the social relations, established through the use of food, between people in such environments, the fears about contemporary food fictionally shaped and expressed through science fiction movies etc. By examining scenes of food consumption in the chosen films, certain recurrent themes pertaining to food will be isolated, and models of nutrition which post-apocalyptic movies have in common will be considered as ways to denote the "otherness" of the future.