Discours alimentaire et figure du médecin dans la littérature russe du XIXe siècle

Abstract

Food and the Figure of the Physician in 19th-Century Russian Literature. this article focuses on the depiction of food in russian classical texts involving figures of physicians, from narezhny to Chekhov. It first examines the link between food and medicine in these texts, then considers the evolution of the physician figure in the context of the evolution of food discourse throughout the 19th century. Finally, it adresses the radical change undergone by the association of food and medicine in Chekhov’s literary discourse. In the first part of the century, physicians are described as promoting modern and healthy foodways ; on the contrary, texts from the second half of the century use the depiction of physicians’ food habits to show them in a negative light, wether as deprived glutons or alcoholics, or as dangerous radicals. Finally, the association of physicians with food in Chekhov’s texts is used only to emphasize their dramatic lost of status.