WestminsterResearch http://www.westminster.ac.uk/westminsterresearch In search for totemic foods: Exploring discursive foodscapes online in Finnish, English and French Makela, M. This is an electronic version of a PhD thesis awarded by the University of Westminster. © Mrs Marjaana Makela, 2020. The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or copyright owners. In search for totemic foods – Exploring discursive foodscapes online in Finnish, English and French Marjaana Mäkelä A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Westminster for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2020 1 Abstract This interdisciplinary research investigates how chilli and chocolate emerge as totemic foods in online foodie discourse. The corpus is compiled from Social Networking Services (blogs, community websites, recipe sharing sites, and conversation fora) in Finnish, English and French. The theoretical framework is construed with post-Bourdieusian taste and distinction studies on discourse, complemented by a feminist positioning. A netnographically inspired inquiry in an observer’s position enhances the methodology of critical discourse studies. The study introduces a theoretical concept: discursive foodscapes, contributing on two dimensions to extant theorising. It focuses the observation on multivocal online communities and extends foodscape analysis towards non-concrete consumption, on a discursive level. Moreover, the study suggests new practices for taste engineering, relevant in online consumption contexts. Three research questions draw on chilli and chocolate as totemic substances, interpreted in a framework of contemporary tribalism within the paradigmatic viewpoint of Consumer Culture Theory: emergence of chocolate and chilli as totemic foods; taste and distinction performance; and representations of gender and power. They are studied separately, although perceiving the triad as entwined. The discursive foodscape related to each research question reflects findings: it is described with the combination of discursive themes, frames and strategies identified in the empirical analysis. Findings reveal a more diversified vista on chocolate and chilli as discursive foci than extant research mostly claims: they are ascribed with a variety of totemic significations, shifting contextually from highly indulgent to environmentally concerned. Knowledge-intensive foodie discourse emerges as relatively gender-neutral. However, across embodied, experiential elements in consumption the discourse becomes more gender-flagged, and contextual changes are highly significant. This variation generates discursively interesting constellations where stylistic categories reflect areas of culinary and discursive competence. Cross-linguistic variation is detected with all research questions, introducing a pioneer-type endeavor in terms of discourse analysis of foodie sites online, across three languages. 2 Table of Contents List of tables and figures ............................................................................................ 8 1. Introduction to the research .................................................................................. 14 1.1 Hors d’oeuvre: personal motivation ................................................................ 14 1.2 Research context and problem setting: “Not just food” ................................... 17 1.3 Research positioning: Consumer Culture Theory ........................................... 22 1.3.1 Bourdieusian lens in CCT ........................................................................ 25 1.3.2 The lenses of discourse theory and situatedness .................................... 26 1.4 Identified research gaps ................................................................................. 27 1.4.1 Consumer Culture Theory ........................................................................ 28 1.4.2 Online foodie cultures .............................................................................. 29 1.4.3 Foodie discourse and its cross-linguistic study ........................................ 30 1.5 Research questions ........................................................................................ 31 1.6 Thesis structure .............................................................................................. 33 1.7 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 34 Chapter 2: Food in consumption culture................................................................... 35 2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 35 2.2. Key concepts ................................................................................................. 35 2.2.1 Foodies .................................................................................................... 36 2.2.2 Foodscape ............................................................................................... 39 2.2.3 Totemic foods ........................................................................................... 42 2.2.4 Online community .................................................................................... 44 2.2.5 Online discourse ...................................................................................... 46 2.2.6 Taste and distinction ................................................................................ 47 2.2.7 Gender ..................................................................................................... 47 2.3 Delineating prior research of the field ............................................................. 49 2.4 Structure of the review .................................................................................... 50 2.5 Food as a constituent of identity ..................................................................... 50 2.5.1 Food consumption and gender ................................................................ 55 2.5.2 Foodways defining consumers ................................................................. 59 2.6 Social components of consumption of significant foods ................................. 61 2.6.1 Commensality .......................................................................................... 62 2.6.2 Foodies as tribal consumers online .......................................................... 64 2.6.3 Symbolic, ritualistic and totemic consumption of food .............................. 72 2.6.3.1 Symbolic dimension .............................................................................. 74 2.6.3.2 Ritualistic dimension ............................................................................. 75 3 2.6.3.3 Totemic dimension ................................................................................ 77 2.6.4 Materiality of food ..................................................................................... 81 2.7 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 84 3 Taste and distinction ............................................................................................. 85 3.1 Introduction: the Bourdieusian framework ...................................................... 85 3.2 Doing taste: distinction by consumption of foods ............................................ 87 3.3 Omnivorous foodie taste ................................................................................. 92 3.4 Recent post-Bourdieusian taste studies and critique ...................................... 94 3.5. Towards an empirical study of taste performance ......................................... 96 3.5.1 Taste regimes .......................................................................................... 97 3.5.2. Taste engineering ................................................................................... 98 3.6 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 100 4 Chilli and chocolate: meanings and mysteries .................................................... 101 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 101 4.2 Chilli – the burning pleasure ......................................................................... 101 4.2.1 From Mesoamerica to the tables of the world ........................................ 103 4.2.2 The heat ................................................................................................. 105 4.2.3 Gendered variation in chilli consumption................................................ 106 4.2.4 The totemic chilli..................................................................................... 108 4.3 Chocolate – the pleasure of sweet indulgence ............................................. 109 4.3.1 Chocolate as a totemic substance ......................................................... 110 4.3.2 Gendered consumption of chocolate...................................................... 113 4.3.3 The forbidden fruit .................................................................................. 114 4.3.4 Ubiquitous chocolate endangered .......................................................... 117 4.4 Conclusion