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Marianne Moore’s Gustatory Imagination

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Part of the book series: Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics ((MPCC))

Abstract

Schulze explores the reflection in her poems of Moore’s complex relationship with food. Her favorite terms about the production and consumption of art—gusto, disgust, fastidiousness, taste, and distaste—are terms rooted in food and appetite. In many of her early verses, Moore uses gustatory metaphors to encourage her readers to ingest new art and ideas and avoid the narrowness of appetite that defines “good taste” as exclusionary. Other poems, however, frequently appreciate those who eat little. This essay explores how Moore’s metaphorical uses of food and eating, of gustatory pleasure and corresponding sensual disgust, shift at a critical point in her career and suggests what the shift means to a broader reading of Moore’s evolving modernist ethos.

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Schulze, R.G. (2018). Marianne Moore’s Gustatory Imagination. In: Gregory, E., Hubbard, S. (eds) Twenty-First Century Marianne Moore. Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65109-5_2

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