La nourriture dans les romans d'Isabelle de Charrière

Abstract

Béatrice Didier : Food in Mme de Charrière's novels. In Isabelle de Charrière's novels, while meals are often mere social rites, food is not without significance ; it is a sign of her characters' fortunes (e.g. in Calliste's illness). It also has a political dimension, as for the «émigrés » whose misery is represented by food problems. In addition, all sorts of food are not equally important ; it can be analysed in terms of the dichotomy man/woman, or we can examine the role of characters as givers or receivers of food. Breast-feeding is discussed by I.C., who claims the right for the woman to decide. It is however difficult to discern a specifically feminine treatment of food ; she is remarkable nevertheless by the art with which she refines a romantic semiotics of food.