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Food, Bodies, and Social Attention in Modern Britain by Alice Tsay a Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillm Absorbing Fare: Food, Bodies, and Social Attention in Modern Britain by Alice Tsay A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (English Language and Literature) in The University of Michigan 2017 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Andrea P. Zemgulys, Chair Professor Daniel S. Hack Professor Adela N. Pinch Professor David L. Porter Professor Susan L. Siegfried Alice Tsay [email protected] ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5977-8111 © Alice Tsay 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project bears the traces of many individuals whose generosity can be tabulated here in only the most cursory and inadequate way. First and foremost, I have been incredibly lucky to undertake this dissertation under the collective care of five wonderful committee members: my incomparable committee chair, Andrea Zemgulys, who saw a coherence in the dissertation even in its roughest stages and drew it out with rigor and grace; Danny Hack, a valued source of forthright advice throughout my graduate studies; Adela Pinch, for mentoring me with candor and acuity not only through this project but also countless other endeavors; David Porter, whose capacious expertise and probing questions have guided me from before I stepped foot in Ann Arbor; and Susan Siegfried, who engaged fully and generously with my dissertation from the first day she signed on as my cognate member. My fellow graduate students at the University of Michigan unfailingly embodied the vitality and collegiality of the humanities, and this dissertation would not have been possible without the community they provided. Deepest thanks go to my stalwart writing group, Eliza Mathie, Aran Ruth, and Pam Wolpert, who kept me writing and helped me think through each of those written words. Additionally, Julia Hansen, Amrita Dhar, Adam Sneed, Logan Scherer, Kathryne Bevilacqua, and Emily Waples offered friendship, perspective, and even housing at critical times. ii Mike Schoenfeldt provided warm encouragement and wise counsel throughout the years. I am glad I found a place here for Marvell and Donne. Par Cassel got me thinking about the circulation of patent pills five years ago, while my interest in the British Empire Exhibition germinated in Valerie Traub and Karl Longstreth’s cartography course. Carla Sinopoli, Brad Taylor, and the Museum Studies Program shaped my thinking about the history of exhibitions as well as the future direction of my own career. Additionally, I am grateful to the many individuals at The Huntington who have offered me advice, friendship, and an intellectual home away from home: Catherine Allgor, Sue Hodson, Peter Blodgett, Anna Engstrom, Brandi Shawn-Chaparro, and many more. Many librarians opened their collections to me and shared their expertise, including Caroline Warhurst at the London Transport Museum, Max Hopkinson at the Brent Museum and Archives, and Nick Millea and Stuart Atkinson at the Bodleian Library. Funding from the Rackham Merit Fellowship, Rackham Humanities Research Fellowship, Rackham Travel Grant, and Fellowship for Doctoral Research in Museum kept food on the table and allowed me to complete the research for this project. Finally, I am unspeakably thankful for Mike, my parents, my brother, Emily, and many other dear friends for continuously pulling me back into the wider world when this dissertation felt like the narrow horizon of my days. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ ii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... vi ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................. viii INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................1 Setting the Table PART I: CONSUMERS CONSUMED ......................................................................................14 CHAPTER ONE ......................................................................................................................15 Man is but a Crab: Crustacean Kinship and Its Perils These His Good Creatures ................................................................................................ 15 The Inaugural Worm ......................................................................................................... 18 Clawing up through the Ranks .......................................................................................... 22 Crustacean Science ........................................................................................................... 25 Being Crabby .................................................................................................................... 27 Cannibal Monkeys of the Sea ........................................................................................... 35 The Future behind Us........................................................................................................ 44 Making It Modern ............................................................................................................. 48 Shells and Selves............................................................................................................... 57 CHAPTER TWO .....................................................................................................................61 Pills for Our Ills: Diagnosing Self and Society Negative Space.................................................................................................................. 61 Doctoring .......................................................................................................................... 69 Naming and Unnaming ..................................................................................................... 76 iv Bottled Nonsense .............................................................................................................. 80 The Stakes of Mishearing ................................................................................................. 87 Sounding True ................................................................................................................... 90 Social Maladies ................................................................................................................. 94 Alterative Futures.............................................................................................................. 98 Of Codfishes and Curates ............................................................................................... 104 PART II: PRODUCERS AND PRODUCTION ......................................................................108 CHAPTER THREE...............................................................................................................109 Weariness and Watercress: Temporalities of Gender, Temporalities of Class Going to Market .............................................................................................................. 109 Green Stuff, Good Stuff ...................................................................................................116 Showing the Work ........................................................................................................... 122 Past Eight ........................................................................................................................ 133 Preservation..................................................................................................................... 151 A Nosegay for the Nation ............................................................................................... 159 Bloom and Bust............................................................................................................... 166 CHAPTER FOUR .................................................................................................................169 Between World’s Fairs and Warfare: Ordering Food at the British Empire Exhibition Going Big and Scaling Down ......................................................................................... 169 The View from Above .................................................................................................... 173 Food Uncontained .......................................................................................................... 177 Placing ............................................................................................................................ 186 Eating for Empire ........................................................................................................... 190 Forwards but Backwards ................................................................................................ 196 Leftovers ......................................................................................................................... 202 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................204 Ruminations BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................209 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Advertisement for Madame Babault, the lobster-clawed lady, (c.1898). Print, Engraving on Paper. Credit: Look and Learn, Peter Jackson Collection/Bridgeman
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