The art of tasting corpses: the conceptual metaphor of consumption in Hannibal

Abstract

The figure of the cannibal has often been symptomatic of a society in crisis with its consumer system. By placing human beings in the same category as food, it highlights the hidden, or ignored, problems of food production and consumption. This essay will argue that the television series Hannibal (2013–2015) precisely plays with the features of cannibalism and of the serial killer fiction tradition in order to question US excessive consumer culture. It will explore how foodways and culinary metaphors, particularly those related to taste, are connected to power, social class and moral values through the dietary choices of the characters. Furthermore, the series’ use of aesthetics to represent corpses as mouth-watering dishes and breathtaking installation artworks that juxtaposes the horror of violence with beauty creates an effect of the horribly repulsive yet irresistibly appetizing for the audience that hinders the easy and mindless consumption of violence characteristic of traditional serial killing narratives and procedurals.

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