“Food in novels!!! Great, tell me”, was often what I used to hear when speaking about this book. For once, I believed, people outside of academia were curious about my research. As for my colleagues, the enthusiasm was no less, and often accompanied by “What a good idea, I’m fed up with depressing subjects” … Indeed, specializing in Middle Eastern studies means allocating a large amount of time to a troubled historical, political, and social context, and dealing with all sorts of human suffering and tragedies. … To be interested in food and culinary culture was therefore seen as a breeze in the sweltering heat of this region of the world. Yet this theme is not that pleasant when one thinks about the economic reality of Arab countries. Afflicted by wars, corruption, and poor distribution of food resources, among other issues, millions of people in these regions live below the poverty line, and can barely secure enough food to eat.
In literature, things are different. Food is abundant and within reach of all readers. Eating and culinary scenes are very present in Modern Arabic literature and form an attractive field of study. However, the extreme research scarcity on this subject – although a delicious one – reinforced my motivation to produce this volume, and I happened to be not the only one. Several colleagues have expressed their interest and willingness to participate in the project. The result is the present book that includes ten chapters in English and French in which researchers have studied the representation of food in a selection of modern texts, mainly novels and short stories, by authors from different Arab countries.
My great thanks go to my colleagues who contributed to the volume. Without their wonderful enthusiasm for this theme, their diligent work and the quality of their research, this project would not have been possible. I would also like to thank the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Stockholm University for its support and for the practical facilities that I have been granted during my work on this book. My thanks go in particular to my colleague and friend Professor Elie Wardini for his continuous support and precious comments, to my ever-scientific mentor and friend Professor Heidi Toelle for her contribution to the volume and her meticulous proofreading of my chapter in French, and to my student and friend Elisa Viteri for her help in the preparation of the book proposal. This volume has also been produced with the financial support of the two Swedish foundations Åke Wibergs stiftelse and Gösta och Susi Enboms donationsfond, to which I am very grateful. I thank, finally, my friends, and my family, especially my brother and sister for their reading of the introduction and useful comments, and my husband Ammar for having been present at my side and having the patience to listen, over several months, to my countless stories and anecdotes about food in literature.