The multiple status of food in contemporary feminist dystopias: a neo-materialistic approach to The New Wilderness by Diane Cook

The feminist dystopia has always resorted to material contexts and features to substantiate its political positions. Among these, food has a peculiar position; in relating issues pertaining to both the biologic and affective spheres, it can dismantle oppositions between material and immaterial. These multifaceted aspects can be analysed through New materialism, framing food procurement, preparation and consumption as performativity (Barad, 2003) between human and non-human. The analysis of Diane Cook’s (2020) The New Wilderness in this direction will show how food substantiates the intersection between the animality of the Wilderness and its scientific framing, merging human bodies with surrounding contexts.