ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that food in the post-apocalyptic novel occupies a central dual role in the narrative. First, it functions as a crucial part of day to day survival. All three novels McCarthy's The Road, Colson Whitehead's Zone One and Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven detail the main characters searching for food in the chaotic spaces of their respective nightmarish landscapes. Food and eating are rarely pleasurable in these scenarios, and are simply another chore to be completed. In McCarthy's and Whitehead's narratives, eating is further complicated by the presence of cannibals in The Road and zombies in Zone One. Second – and perhaps this are the most important function of food in these texts – food and eating is always nostalgic. Characters in the post-catastrophe landscape no longer enjoy the luxury of food choices or tastes. Twenty-first-century consumers are able to make informed choices about food, choosing to eat organically or ethically farmed food, for example.
