George Gissing's Language of Food Between Industrial Modernity and Proto-Ecological Discourse

This contribution explores the complex language of food in works by George Gissing, who aspired to render the deprivation and disunity of Victorian society in its crudest details. The impact of poverty is conveyed by images of vegetarianism, food contamination and bestial acts of devouring, which reveal Gissing's social anxieties as well as they bear witness to his ambiguous fascination with the underclass. In some works, moreover, food embodies Gissing's deep concerns about degradation, which take the shape of a proto-ecological discourse against industrialisation and consumerism.