Cibo e letteratura - Il pasto in sei romanzi italiani
Author
Summary, in English
The purpose of this essay is to analyze the role of food and meals in literary text. The concept of a meal here includes many things: not only the food and provisions themselves, but also how they are prepared and consumed. Many authors have used the meal as a concrete tool to illustrate, for example, where the novel takes place geographically and in what era, as well as to describe the characters' identities, memories and feelings.
The work therefore aims to answer the question of how meals are used in six Italian novels to illustrate cultural and social belonging, the characters' identity, era, setting and place where the stories take place, and how food is used as a literary element in the story. The selected works represent a wide range of how food is used to illustrate, for example, different regions and historical eras, social belonging and situations of abundance of food and mere starvation. The six novels are: Il gattopardo (The Leopard) by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Se questo è un uomo (If This Is A Man) by Primo Levi, Voci (Voices) by Dacia Maraini, Scontro di civiltà per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio (Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio) by Amara Lakhous, Accabadora (Accabadora) by Michela Murgia and Eva dorme (Eva Sleeps) by Francesca Melandri.
The theory for determining the functions or meaning of food in a fictional text covers many areas. It is thus not only a question of literary theory, but also of cultural theory. The theory presents several ways of systematizing the functions and themes of food in Italian literature. This essay refers to eight such functional areas: 1) the denotative function, i.e. the meal as a representation of reality, 2) the connotative function, i.e. the meal as an expression of identity, 3) the communicative function, i.e. the meal as social interaction, 4) the environmental function, i.e. the place of preparation and consumption of food, 5) the structural function, i.e. the meal as a narrative element of the story, 6) the metaphorical function, i.e. the meal as a symbol, 7) the metanarrative function, i.e. food as a comment on the story itself, and 8) the stylistic function, i.e. food as a stylistic element. The conclusion is that the theoretical framework with these eight different functions well describes the different meanings of food and meals in Italian literature from the 20th century until today.
The work therefore aims to answer the question of how meals are used in six Italian novels to illustrate cultural and social belonging, the characters' identity, era, setting and place where the stories take place, and how food is used as a literary element in the story. The selected works represent a wide range of how food is used to illustrate, for example, different regions and historical eras, social belonging and situations of abundance of food and mere starvation. The six novels are: Il gattopardo (The Leopard) by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Se questo è un uomo (If This Is A Man) by Primo Levi, Voci (Voices) by Dacia Maraini, Scontro di civiltà per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio (Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio) by Amara Lakhous, Accabadora (Accabadora) by Michela Murgia and Eva dorme (Eva Sleeps) by Francesca Melandri.
The theory for determining the functions or meaning of food in a fictional text covers many areas. It is thus not only a question of literary theory, but also of cultural theory. The theory presents several ways of systematizing the functions and themes of food in Italian literature. This essay refers to eight such functional areas: 1) the denotative function, i.e. the meal as a representation of reality, 2) the connotative function, i.e. the meal as an expression of identity, 3) the communicative function, i.e. the meal as social interaction, 4) the environmental function, i.e. the place of preparation and consumption of food, 5) the structural function, i.e. the meal as a narrative element of the story, 6) the metaphorical function, i.e. the meal as a symbol, 7) the metanarrative function, i.e. food as a comment on the story itself, and 8) the stylistic function, i.e. food as a stylistic element. The conclusion is that the theoretical framework with these eight different functions well describes the different meanings of food and meals in Italian literature from the 20th century until today.
Department/s
Publishing year
2024
Language
Italian
Full text
Document type
Student publication for Bachelor's degree
Topic
- History and Archaeology
- Cultural Sciences
- Languages and Literatures
Keywords
- Il cibo
- il pasto
- gli alimenti
- preparazione e consumazione del cibo
- testo letterario
- teoria letterario
- la funzione denotativa
- la funzione connotativa
- la funzione comunicativa
- la funzione ambientale
- la funzione strutturale
- la funzione metaforica
- la funzione metanarrativa
- la funzione stilistica
- romanzo
- elemento nella scrittura
- l’appartenenza culturale e sociale
- regioni geografici
- la identità dei personaggi
- l’epoca storica
- l’ambiente
- il luogo
Supervisor
- Roberta Colonna Dahlman (PhD Student)