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Thinking through hunger and appetite in Renaissance England -- Service -- The food gift -- Sexual desire -- Female food refusal -- Imperial appetites -- Revolt

"In order to understand the depiction of hunger and appetite correctly, it is necessary to explore the historical conditions surrounding their representation. For the apparent universality of these drives masks the complex ways they both determine, and are determined by, social formations. Hunger, as Ernst Bloch notes, may constitute 'the oil in the lamp of history, but even this primary need looks different according to the changing ways in which needs are satisfied' (Bloch, 1995, p. 69). The precise significance of hunger varies depending on a vast range of material and ideological factors. This is not simply a matter of distinguishing between the passing pangs experienced by all and the profound hunger which affects those who starve. There are also significant differences in terms of both cause and perception, between a peasant who starves alongside their entire village and the outcast who famishes in the midst of plenty. To comprehend what is at stake in the representation of hunger and appetite, it is therefore necessary to consider the material factors governing the lived experience of these drives in the early modern period, and the ideological framework within which they were understood"-- Provided by publisher.