Starving, bingeing and writing : reading and writing memoirs of eating disorder

Memoirs of eating disorders have attracted considerable popular, critical and scholarly attention as a sub-genre of life writing. These memoirs have also been noted by, and incorporated into, the medical and psychological discourse on eating disorder. Rarely, if ever, however, have these memoirs been read, categorised or discussed as a sub-genre of food writing. In so doing, this article proposes that while many personal memoirs of disordered eating concentrate both on gastronomic/culinary and personal matters (like the food memoir), many also narrate a concern with the act of writing, the author’s motivation towards producing this unique group of texts, and their intended consumers. Surveying the eating disorder memoir in this way, and investigating its history, themes, tropes and prominent metaphors, contributes to our understanding of both memoir and food writing as nonfiction genres.