Culture et mots de la table: comment parle-t-on de la nourriture et de la cuisine en termes académiques, littéraires et populaires/argotiques? éds. par Sabine Bastian, Uta Felten et Jean-Pierre Goudaillier

Abstract

Reviewed by: Culture et mots de la table: comment parle-t-on de la nourriture et de la cuisine en termes académiques, littéraires et populaires/argotiques? éds. par Sabine Bastian, Uta Felten et Jean-Pierre Goudaillier Amanda Dalola Bastian, Sabine, Uta Felten, Jean-Pierre Goudaillier, éd. Culture et mots de la table: comment parle-t-on de la nourriture et de la cuisine en termes académiques, littéraires et populaires/argotiques?. Peter Lang, 2019. ISBN 978-3-631-78562-1. Pp. 312. This volume features a collection of papers from the Colloque international d'Argotologie de Leipzig 2017, which reflects the work of twenty-five scholars investigating the decadent art of talking about food in a variety of languages and cultural contexts. Divided into three sections, each one dedicated to a different analytical pursuit—comparing lexical differences between argotic and standard terms, examining crosslinguistic lexical equivalents, observing descriptions in literature/music—this work brings to light the multitude of stylistic and functional differences speakers and writers face when talking about food and the act of eating. The first section addresses stylistic gaps in popular vs. normative forms of reference. Some chapters address stylistic differences in Hexagonal French: lexical creativity in vegan cuisine, popular food expressions from soldiers, food talk on French-language culinary blogs. Others explore socially-conditioned variation in other language varieties: Polish, Bulgarian, the regional languages of Champagne and Ardennes. The second section examines crosslinguistic lexical equivalents between French and other languages (Polish, Czech, Slovenian, Spanish) and examines the role that borrowing has played in the development of an international yet culturally-bound culinary lexicon, such as the presence of a large number of French words in gastronomical terminology in Spanish in contrast to the variable morphological productivity for different 'pork' words in Peninsular Spanish, with a culinary history that privileges ham as the ultimate pork product vs. Hexagonal French which privileges sausage. The third section espouses a more textual analytic approach as it undertakes a general discussion of edible representations (food as well as alcohol, drugs, poison, and locations of their consumption) in song lyrics, literary titles, and the written works of Bruant, Dante, Gide, Mabanckou, Mujila, and Proust. The collection's three-pronged approach marries the linguistic, the crosslinguistic, and the cultural. By thoroughly deconstructing gastronomical language, it allows synchronic descriptions of language behavior to [End Page 251] motivate and inform cultural representations of food practices from varying time periods in a sort of timeless feedback loop. This compilation is strong not only for its methodological hybridity but also for its linguistic diversity—22 of the 23 chapters have been written in French, one in Italian, and an expansive array of European languages are featured as the subject of inquiry alongside French. Literary, cultural, and linguistic scholars alike will delight in the contents of this volume. Each chapter, although cohesively organized by analytical objective, can easily be devoured on its own. Scholars of gastronomy and history will find extra appeal in the ethnography- and history-centered discussions, while socio- and diachronic linguists will revel in the systematic deconstructions of etymological, register- and gender-conditioned variants. As such, this compendium lends itself easily to modular consumption in reading groups and upper-level courses on (French) culture, literature and/or linguistics. Comprehensive, multimodal, plurilinguistic, this collection will enthrall readers with its cornucopia of insight on the most universal cultural practice of all. Amanda Dalola New Manchester High School (GA) Copyright © 2021 American Association of Teachers of French