This master's thesis focuses on the issue of food in some selected works by Kawakami Hiromi (born 1958). At first, it attempts to express some characteristic features of modern Japanese cuisine in general, which are closely connected to the creation of the concept of national identity, and to give a summary of works of modern and contemporary Japanese literature in which the topic of food is present. Next, it describes the work of Kawakami Hiromi. After introducing the author's main masterpieces and its typical features, it comes to the interpretation of the selected texts which were published within 1998 and 2010. It interprets the works mainly from the thematic point of view and it attempts to determine connections in which the issue and motifs of food appear. It also studies what role is played by food, eating or cooking in Kawakami's work. In selected translated passages it makes an effort to give evidence of certain elements in her work such as: food as means of befriendment, motif of a skilled male cook, inability to cook, which leads to a conflict in a relationship etc. It compares works in which often appear lonely women protagonists longing for love and in which the real world meets the supernatural or the traditional elements meet the modern ones. In order to point out other connections...

Dentre os perigos relacionados com a produção de café verde, a ocratoxina A (OTA) é considerada significativa nesse produto. Com o objetivo de estudar a origem da OTA no processamento de café verde e avaliar os possíveis fatores de risco (região, etapas do processamento, fungos, insetos e ácaros) que poderiam contribuir na presença de OTA, foram amostradas três fazendas nos seguintes municípios: Bom Jardim (RJ), Espírito Santo do Pinhal (SP) e Cornélio Procópio (PR), onde havia a produção de café verde pela via seca e úmida. Foram coletadas 109 amostras de grãos de café, em diversas etapas do processamento, no período de maio a agosto de 2002. As amostras foram colhidas de acordo com fluxograma estabelecido e as etapas estudadas foram: cereja (campo), via seca, via úmida, armazém e café de varrição. Dessas amostras, 10 apresentaram OTA, que variou na sua quantificação de 3 a 101 ng.g-1. A maior prevalência de OTA foi a do café de varrição 57%, a via úmida apresentou uma prevalência de 10,3% e a via seca 7%. Na etapa cereja o fungo potencialmente toxigênico mais encontrado foi Penicillium spp, e quanto aos insetos, as larvas de Diptera e os Homoptera; na via úmida foram encontradas linhagens do Aspergillus seção Nigri e Circundatti e Penicillium spp, a infestação predominante foi a broca do café e os ácaros da família Acaridae; na etapa via seca registrou-se o isolamento de fungos do gênero Penicillium spp e Aspergillus seção Nigri , a broca do café foi a infestação predominante junto com os ácaros da família Acaridae, na etapa de armazém foram isolados Penicillium spp e Aspergillus seção Nigri, o inseto predominante foi a broca do café e os ácaros da família Acaridae; no café de varrição foram isolados Penicillium spp e Aspergillus seção Nigri e a broca do café estava presente junto com insetos da Ordem Diptera. Os resultados de cada etapa foram comparados por Análise de Variância em um nível de significância de 95%. Na análise de fatores de risco o café de varrição foi o mais significativo (p< 0,001). / The ochratoxin A (OTA) is considered to be among the most significant coffee contaminants with related hazards. With the purpose to study the origin of the OTA in the processing of green coffee and to evaluate the possible risk factors (region, step of processing, fungi, insects and mites) that could contribute in the OTA presence, had been selected three regions (states) of Brazil: Bom Jardim/RJ, Espírito Santo do Pinhal/SP and Cornélio Procópio/PR. A total of 109 samples of coffee beans were collected in conformity with flow chart established at different stages of ripening and processing: cherry (field), dry method, wet method, and warehouse and varrição coffee, from May to August of 2002. Of these samples 10 had presented OTA, which varied in its quantification from 3 to 101 ng.g-1. The biggest prevalence of OTA was the varrição coffee 57%, the wet method presented a prevalence of 10,3% and dry way 7%. In the stage cherry fungi potentially toxigenic was more found Penicillium spp, the insects had been the larvae of Diptera and the Homoptera; in the wet way it was found Aspergillus section Nigri and Circundatti and Penicillium spp, the predominant infestation was the coffee berry borer and the mite of the Acaridae family; in the stage wet methods spp was registered the isolation the Penicillium spp and Aspergillus section Nigri, the predominant infestation was the coffee berry borer together with the mites of the Acaridae family; in the stage of warehouse had been isolated Penicillium spp and Aspergillus section Nigri, and the predominant insect was the coffee berry borer and mites of the family Acaridae; in the varrição coffee had been isolated Penicillium spp and Aspergillus section Nigri the coffee berry borer was the most present insects together of Diptera. The results of each step had been with compared by Analysis of Variance. In the analysis of risk factors the varrição coffee\" was the factor most strongly related to the risk of the presence of OTA (p<0,001 ).

Dentre os perigos relacionados com a produção de café verde, a ocratoxina A (OTA) é considerada significativa nesse produto. Com o objetivo de estudar a origem da OTA no processamento de café verde e avaliar os possíveis fatores de risco (região, etapas do processamento, fungos, insetos e ácaros) que poderiam contribuir na presença de OTA, foram amostradas três fazendas nos seguintes municípios: Bom Jardim (RJ), Espírito Santo do Pinhal (SP) e Cornélio Procópio (PR), onde havia a produção de café verde pela via seca e úmida. Foram coletadas 109 amostras de grãos de café, em diversas etapas do processamento, no período de maio a agosto de 2002. As amostras foram colhidas de acordo com fluxograma estabelecido e as etapas estudadas foram: cereja (campo), via seca, via úmida, armazém e café de varrição. Dessas amostras, 10 apresentaram OTA, que variou na sua quantificação de 3 a 101 ng.g-1. A maior prevalência de OTA foi a do café de varrição 57%, a via úmida apresentou uma prevalência de 10,3% e a via seca 7%. Na etapa cereja o fungo potencialmente toxigênico mais encontrado foi Penicillium spp, e quanto aos insetos, as larvas de Diptera e os Homoptera; na via úmida foram encontradas linhagens do Aspergillus seção Nigri e Circundatti e Penicillium spp, a infestação predominante foi a broca do café e os ácaros da família Acaridae; na etapa via seca registrou-se o isolamento de fungos do gênero Penicillium spp e Aspergillus seção Nigri , a broca do café foi a infestação predominante junto com os ácaros da família Acaridae, na etapa de armazém foram isolados Penicillium spp e Aspergillus seção Nigri, o inseto predominante foi a broca do café e os ácaros da família Acaridae; no café de varrição foram isolados Penicillium spp e Aspergillus seção Nigri e a broca do café estava presente junto com insetos da Ordem Diptera. Os resultados de cada etapa foram comparados por Análise de Variância em um nível de significância de 95%. Na análise de fatores de risco o café de varrição foi o mais significativo (p< 0,001). / The ochratoxin A (OTA) is considered to be among the most significant coffee contaminants with related hazards. With the purpose to study the origin of the OTA in the processing of green coffee and to evaluate the possible risk factors (region, step of processing, fungi, insects and mites) that could contribute in the OTA presence, had been selected three regions (states) of Brazil: Bom Jardim/RJ, Espírito Santo do Pinhal/SP and Cornélio Procópio/PR. A total of 109 samples of coffee beans were collected in conformity with flow chart established at different stages of ripening and processing: cherry (field), dry method, wet method, and warehouse and varrição coffee, from May to August of 2002. Of these samples 10 had presented OTA, which varied in its quantification from 3 to 101 ng.g-1. The biggest prevalence of OTA was the varrição coffee 57%, the wet method presented a prevalence of 10,3% and dry way 7%. In the stage cherry fungi potentially toxigenic was more found Penicillium spp, the insects had been the larvae of Diptera and the Homoptera; in the wet way it was found Aspergillus section Nigri and Circundatti and Penicillium spp, the predominant infestation was the coffee berry borer and the mite of the Acaridae family; in the stage wet methods spp was registered the isolation the Penicillium spp and Aspergillus section Nigri, the predominant infestation was the coffee berry borer together with the mites of the Acaridae family; in the stage of warehouse had been isolated Penicillium spp and Aspergillus section Nigri, and the predominant insect was the coffee berry borer and mites of the family Acaridae; in the varrição coffee had been isolated Penicillium spp and Aspergillus section Nigri the coffee berry borer was the most present insects together of Diptera. The results of each step had been with compared by Analysis of Variance. In the analysis of risk factors the varrição coffee\" was the factor most strongly related to the risk of the presence of OTA (p<0,001 ).

This project aims to take the investigation of food in early modern drama, in itself a relatively new field, in a new direction. It does this by shifting the critical focus from food-based metaphors to food-based properties and food-producing cook characters. This shift reveals exciting, unexpected, and hitherto unnoticed contexts. In The Taming of the Shrew and Titus Andronicus, which were written during William Shakespeare’s inn-yard playhouse period, the playwright exploits these exceptionally aromatic venues in order to trigger site-specific responses to food-based scenes in these plays. Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair brings fair-appropriate gingerbread properties onstage. When we look beneath the surface of this food effect to its bread and wine ingredients, however, it reveals a subtext that satirizes the theory of transubstantiation. Jonson expands on this theme by using Ursula’s cooking fire (a property staged in Jonson’s representation of Smithfield’s Bartholomew Fair) to engage with the prison narrative of Anne Askew, who was burned to death in front of Bartholomew Priory on the historic Smithfield for denying the doctrine of transubstantiation. This thesis also investigates water, which, for early moderns, was a complex and quasi-mystical liquid: it was a primary element, it washed sin from the world during the Great Flood, it was a marker of status, it was a medicine, and it was a cookery ingredient. Christopher Marlowe not only uses dirty water to humiliate his doomed monarch in Edward II, but he also uses it to apportion blame to the king for his own downfall. In Timon of Athens, Shakespeare draws on the theory of the elements to cast Timon as a man of water, who, Jesus-like, breaks up and divides (or splashes around) his body at his “last” supper. Fully-fledged cook characters were a relative rarity on the early modern stage. This project looks at two exceptions: Furnace in Philip Massinger’s A New Way to Pay Old Debts and the unnamed master cook in John Fletcher’s The Tragedy of Rollo, Duke of Normandy. Both playwrights use their respective gastronomic geniuses to demonstrate the danger that lower-order expertise poses to the upper classes when society is in flux. Finally, this project demonstrates that a link existed between ornate domestic food effects and alchemy. It shows how Philip Massinger’s The Great Duke of Florence and Thomas Middleton’s Women, Beware Women use food properties associated with alchemy to satirize notions of perfection in their play-worlds.