“coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkins…”: Eating Indoors and Outdoors in Children’s Literature
Venice, Italy
Organization: Ca' Foscari University of Venice
Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
27-28 November 2025
International Conference
“coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkins…”: Eating Indoors and Outdoors in Children’s Literature
Keynote Speakers: Prof. Vanessa Joosen (University of Antwerp), Prof. Diane Purkiss (University of Oxford)
Food and eating occupy a central place in many children’s stories. The extent of scholarly interest in the topic is evident in numerous critical works, ranging from the monograph Voracious Children (2026) to collections such as Critical Approaches to Food in Children’s Literature (2009), Feast or Famine? Food and Children’s Literature (2015), Table Lands: Food in Children’s Literature (2020), and Eating Cultures in Children’s Literature (2024). Discussions of food in children's narratives also feature prominently in food studies collections like The Routledge Companion to Literature and Food (2018) and Food and Literature (2018), as well as in a wealth of journal essays and edited volumes too numerous to list. Across all these works, scholars explore the wide range of meanings and interpretations that food holds within children’s literature. But while fictional food itself has been discussed from a variety of different perspectives, the significance of the places in which food is prepared and consumed has not been given the same critical attention. It is safe to say that in children’s literature there are as many inns, cafés, restaurants, dining rooms, canteens, picnics, chocolate factories and tea parties – indoor and outdoor venues alike – as there are types of real and fantasy foods. Some of these places, such as the ‘Osteria del Gambero Rosso’ where Pinocchio dines with the Fox and the Cat, have entered the popular imagination and have become cultural references in gastronomy. Some other venues disrupt the boundaries between inside/outside and between kinds of eating practices: although supplied with a large armchair and a long table fully set for tea, Alice’s ‘Mad Tea-Party’ takes place, like a picnic, under a tree. On other occasions, it is the boundaries between space and food which are torn down. A place like the witches’ house in ‘Hansel and Gretel’ can thus be made of bread, cake, and sugar, but far from being comforting the house and the food take on threatening – and predatory – connotations, subverting the food hierarchy. The aim of this conference is thus to bring together investigations about the way child characters engaged in eating scenes alter the meaning of places, just as places, in turn, shape the characters. We are interested in exploring interactions between children, places, and food, and the way this triangulation evokes memories, shape children as consumers, build communities, and suggest connections to social, gender, and national identities.
This conference invites proposals for papers that broadly address these topics, and which more narrowly consider, but are not limited to, the following themes:
· The relationship(s) between food and indoor/outdoor eating
· Similarities and differences between eating indoors and outdoors
· Public eating places vs solitary eating
· The disruption of the boundaries between inside/outside and kinds of eating practices
· Making food vs. eating food
· Indoor and outdoor places where food is grown, produced, bought, or made (farms, markets, kitchens…)
· Indoor and outdoor places where food is consumed (inns, cafés, restaurants, dining rooms, picnics, gardens, tea parties…)
· Real, fantastical, and magical eateries
· The predatory connotations of places made of food used to tempt and lure children
· Writing vs. illustrating indoor and outdoor eateries: picture books and illustrated books
· Places of feasting and places of fasting: banquets vs. scarcity of food
We welcome submissions of abstracts (max. 300 words) for 20-minute papers, followed by a short biographical note. Please submit your proposal to both conference organizers:
Prof. Laura Tosi: tosilaur@unive.it
Dr. Alessandro Cabiati: alessandro.cabiati@unive.it
We look forward to receiving your proposals. The deadline for submission is 15 July 2025. Notification of inclusion will be sent by the end of August 2025.
Alessandro Cabiati
