From chef to superstar : food media from World War 2 to the World Wide Web

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dc.contributor.advisorHiggins, Johnen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorHansen, Signeen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2014-12-30T19:50:52Z
dc.date.available2014-12-30T19:50:52Z
dc.date.issued2007en_ZA
dc.descriptionIncludes bibliographical references (p. 305-338).en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThis thesis examines representations of food in twenty-first century media, and argues that the media obsession with food in evidence today follows directly from U.K. and U.S. post-war industrial and economic booms, and by the associated processes of globalisation that secure the spread of emergent trends from these countries to the rest of the so-called Western world. The theoretical frame for the work is guided in large part by Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle (1967), which follows a Marxist tradition of examining the intersection between consumerism and social relationships. Debord's spectacle is not merely something to be looked at, but functions, like Marx's fetishised commodity, as a mechanism of alienation. The spectacle does this by substituting real, lived experience with representations of life. Based on analyses of media representations of food from the post-war period to the present day, the work argues against the discursive celebration of globalisation as a signifier of abundance and access, and maintains, instead, that consequent to the now commonplace availability of choice and information is a deeply ambiguous relationship to food because it is a relationship overwhelmingly determined by media rather than experience. It further argues that the success of food media results from a spectacular conflation of an economy of consumerism with the basic human need to consume to survive. Contemporary celebrity chefs emerge as the locus of this conflation by representing figures of authority on that basic need, and also, through branded products (including themselves), the superfluity of consumerism. The subject of the work, therefore, is food, but the main object of its critique is media. Food media from World War 2 to the World Wide Web is about the commodification of history and politics, through food, and the natural (super)star of this narrative is the modern celebrity chef.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationHansen, S. (2007). <i>From chef to superstar : food media from World War 2 to the World Wide Web</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10632en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationHansen, Signe. <i>"From chef to superstar : food media from World War 2 to the World Wide Web."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10632en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationHansen, S. 2007. From chef to superstar : food media from World War 2 to the World Wide Web. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Hansen, Signe AB - This thesis examines representations of food in twenty-first century media, and argues that the media obsession with food in evidence today follows directly from U.K. and U.S. post-war industrial and economic booms, and by the associated processes of globalisation that secure the spread of emergent trends from these countries to the rest of the so-called Western world. The theoretical frame for the work is guided in large part by Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle (1967), which follows a Marxist tradition of examining the intersection between consumerism and social relationships. Debord's spectacle is not merely something to be looked at, but functions, like Marx's fetishised commodity, as a mechanism of alienation. The spectacle does this by substituting real, lived experience with representations of life. Based on analyses of media representations of food from the post-war period to the present day, the work argues against the discursive celebration of globalisation as a signifier of abundance and access, and maintains, instead, that consequent to the now commonplace availability of choice and information is a deeply ambiguous relationship to food because it is a relationship overwhelmingly determined by media rather than experience. It further argues that the success of food media results from a spectacular conflation of an economy of consumerism with the basic human need to consume to survive. Contemporary celebrity chefs emerge as the locus of this conflation by representing figures of authority on that basic need, and also, through branded products (including themselves), the superfluity of consumerism. The subject of the work, therefore, is food, but the main object of its critique is media. Food media from World War 2 to the World Wide Web is about the commodification of history and politics, through food, and the natural (super)star of this narrative is the modern celebrity chef. DA - 2007 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2007 T1 - From chef to superstar : food media from World War 2 to the World Wide Web TI - From chef to superstar : food media from World War 2 to the World Wide Web UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10632 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/10632
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationHansen S. From chef to superstar : food media from World War 2 to the World Wide Web. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Centre for Film and Media Studies, 2007 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10632en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentCentre for Film and Media Studiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherFilm and Media Studiesen_ZA
dc.titleFrom chef to superstar : food media from World War 2 to the World Wide Weben_ZA
dc.typeDoctoral Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoral
dc.type.qualificationnamePhDen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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