ABSTRACT

The very nature of post-apocalyptic fiction demands that food is examined and understood in a different way. The word ‘apocalypse’ comes from the ancient Greek apokalupsis and translates as a “revelation or unveiling of the true order” (Heffernan 2008, 4). The new world order that emerges in each of the post-catastrophe novels examined requires a new way of considering the role of food and eating in literature. This chapter will explore the representation of food, eating, and cooking in post-apocalyptic fiction of the twenty-first century. Drawing on three recent novels, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006), Colson Whitehead’s Zone One (2011) and Emily St John Mandel’s Station Eleven (2014), I will argue that food in the post-apocalyptic novel occupies a central dual role in the narrative. First, it functions as a crucial part of day to day survival. All three novels detail the main characters searching for food in the chaotic spaces of their respective nightmarish landscapes. Food and eating are rarely pleasurable in these scenarios, and are simply another chore to be completed. In McCarthy’s and Whitehead’s narratives, eating is further complicated by the presence of cannibals in The Road and zombies in Zone One. The human body is translated into just another food option in both of these post-apocalyptic worlds, and, for McCarthy in particular, choosing what to eat, and what not to eat, allows a philosophical engagement with the morality of survival ethics.