Editing Human cannibalism (section)

== In literature and popular culture ==
{{main|Cannibalism in literature|Cannibalism in popular culture}}

[[File:A Modest Proposal 1729 Cover.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|Cover of the first edition of Jonathan Swift's ''[[A Modest Proposal]]'']]
Cannibalism is depicted in literary and other imaginative works across history. Homer's ''[[Odyssey]]'', ''[[Beowulf]]'', Shakespeare's ''[[Titus Andronicus]]'', Daniel Defoe's ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'', Herman Melville's ''[[Moby-Dick]]'', and Gustave Flaubert's ''[[Salammbô|Salammbo]]'' are prominent examples.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rawson |first=Claude |date=24 January 1985 |title=Eating people |language=en |volume=7 |work=London Review of Books |issue=1 |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v07/n01/claude-rawson/eating-people |access-date=8 April 2022 |issn=0260-9592}}</ref> It also features in several classic Chinese novels, such as ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'' and ''[[Water Margin]]''.

One of the most famous satirical essays in the English language concerns cannibalism. ''A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick,'' commonly referred to as ''[[A Modest Proposal]]'', is a [[Juvenalian satire]] published by [[Anglo-Irish people|Anglo-Irish]] writer and clergyman [[Jonathan Swift]] in 1729. It suggests that poor people in [[Kingdom of Ireland|Ireland]] could ease their economic troubles by selling their young children as food to the elite, and describes in detail the various advantages this would ostensibly have. Among other satirical works depicting cannibalism are [[Mark Twain]]'s short story "[[Cannibalism in the Cars]]" (1868)<ref>Phelps, Walter (1985) "Cannibalism as Satire in Twain and Tom Wolfe", ''Draftings In'': Vol. 1 : No. 1, Article 6.</ref> and [[Mo Yan]]'s novel ''[[The Republic of Wine]]'' (1992).

Cannibalism is also a recurring theme in popular culture, especially within the [[horror genre]], with [[cannibal film]]s being a notable subgenre. One of the best known fictional serial killers is a cannibal: [[Hannibal Lecter]], created by [[Thomas Harris]]. Survival cannibalism is a topic of films such as ''[[Society of the Snow]]'' (2023) and TV series such as ''[[Yellowjackets (TV series)|Yellowjackets]]'' (2021–). Other works mention cannibalism in post-apocalyptic settings, among them Cormac McCarthy's novel ''[[The Road]]'' (2006) and its [[The Road (2009 film)|2009 film adaptation]]. People who consume human flesh without knowing it are depicted in various films, among them the science fiction classic ''[[Soylent Green]]'' (1973) and the horror comedy ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'' (1975).