A certain (sexualized) hunger: cannibalism and pleasure in Chelsea G. Summers’ A Certain Hunger

Within contemporary discourse surrounding women and sexuality, the conflation of sexual and gustatory appetite is common. Female hunger (both sexual and gustatory) is at once presented as something monstrous to be monitored and controlled, yet also something erotic and sensual. Using Summers’ novel, A Certain Hunger, as a case study, I examine the ways in which female gustatory and sexual appetites are inextricably linked within contemporary literature, creating a ‘hungry woman’ character that is both monstrous and eroticized. Furthermore, I explore the ways in which these representations of cannibalism act as voyeuristic scenes of pleasure and intrigue, engaging with what Helen Hester refers to as the ‘disreputable inclination to see and know’. In doing so, A Certain Hunger draws on the appeal of the taboo as it pertains to female sensory and sensual pleasure, and discourses surrounding food and eating.