Tasting Anxieties: Food and Emotion in Black Mirror

Joanna Łapińska

Abstract


The article analyzes the functions of food in selected Black Mirror episodes as an affective body and a matrix that organizes emotions, social relations, and power structures. Its aim is to show how food in science fiction can reveal mechanisms of power and shape affective relations. The starting point is Sara Ahmed’s affect theory, which describes emotions as forces circulating between bodies. The article also draws on Lauren Berlant’s concept of “cruel optimism,” arguing that food functions as a vehicle for unfulfilled promises. Analyzing the episodes “Fifteen Million Merits,” “Nosedive,” and “Be Right Back,” the article shows that eating – or the lack of it – becomes a figure of social norms and emotional alienation, contributing to research on food in science fiction narratives.


Keywords


Black Mirror; affect; food as affective body; food in science fiction; cruel optimism

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/ff.2025.43.2.217-230
Date of publication: 2025-12-29 09:26:22
Date of submission: 2025-06-25 17:02:44


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