F(e)asting fitness?

Is this an appetizing treat for those fit enough to stomach a surprise or two? This Fe(a)stschrift in honor of Wolfgang Klooß – reflecting his academic and personal pursuits – challenges our understanding of how health, food, and fitness interact: Whether charting the practice of cannibalism as survival strategy, or early forms of cooking and food exchange, or excessive and sophisticated consumption in North America; whether detailing the calorie control in postwar Germany, or the feeding of the poor in nineteenth-century England, or the human enhancement program for super soldiers; whether tracing the sexuality of the aging, or the nation-building discourses in the context of the Vancouver Olympics and of hockey movies – this collection provides a menu of twenty-one diverse dishes that both entertain and nourish more than just a hungry intellect. Spicing up the essays by German and Canadian scholars, this serving includes seven mostly short literary texts (one involving the assistance of a wooden chef) by renowned Canadian authors. As these contributions offer their digestions of the cultural images, social practices, and histories inherent in the topic, they demonstrate how fine a line there often is between fasting and feasting fitness.