Abstract:
This paper examines the trope of food in select French literary works. France is known for its rich culinary tradition, having evolved over centuries of royal buffets. Historical forces of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries added a different aroma and brought the bourgeois table into centre stage. As French people moved up (and at times down) the social ladder, all they ate (and did not eat) became laden with significance. This paper looks at culinary and table habits as depicted in French literary works to bring out the full flavour of the symbolism behind the oft-ignored mundane evocations of a mere meal.
