{"title":"The Utopian Future of Food in Louis-Sébastien Mercier’s L’An deux mille quatre cent quarante: rêve s’il en fut jamais (1771)","authors":"J. Dutton","doi":"10.3828/AJFS.2021.03","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\nLouis-Sébastien Mercier’s novel L’An deux mille quatre cent quarante: rêve s’il en fut jamais (1771) was the first futuristic utopia—or “uchronia”—and its treatment of food reveals that alimentary concerns were important markers of both contemporary inequality and future harmony in pre-revolutionary France. This article examines the utopian future of food via three alimentary features of Mercier’s novel: food justice, food security and commensality. By considering these tropes as reflections of perceived flaws in Parisian society, it demonstrates the importance of encouraging imaginary projections of ideal solutions to food crises through such literary experiments. The critiques and ideals related to food presented in L’An 2440 are contextualized through reference to the historical economic and social issues that inspired them. In conclusion, Mercier’s preoccupations in the eighteenth century and his predictions for the twenty-fifth century are considered with regard to their relevance to twenty-first-century food challenges, at a moment that is mid-way between these two points on the author’s alimentary history chronology.","PeriodicalId":8649,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of French Studies","volume":"58 1","pages":"24-37"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Australian Journal of French Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3828/AJFS.2021.03","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE, ROMANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Louis-Sébastien Mercier’s novel L’An deux mille quatre cent quarante: rêve s’il en fut jamais (1771) was the first futuristic utopia—or “uchronia”—and its treatment of food reveals that alimentary concerns were important markers of both contemporary inequality and future harmony in pre-revolutionary France. This article examines the utopian future of food via three alimentary features of Mercier’s novel: food justice, food security and commensality. By considering these tropes as reflections of perceived flaws in Parisian society, it demonstrates the importance of encouraging imaginary projections of ideal solutions to food crises through such literary experiments. The critiques and ideals related to food presented in L’An 2440 are contextualized through reference to the historical economic and social issues that inspired them. In conclusion, Mercier’s preoccupations in the eighteenth century and his predictions for the twenty-fifth century are considered with regard to their relevance to twenty-first-century food challenges, at a moment that is mid-way between these two points on the author’s alimentary history chronology.
《食物的乌托邦未来》(louis - sebastien Mercier’s an 2440: reve si en fut jamais, 1771)
Louis-Sébastien Mercier的小说《L'An deux mille quatre cent quarante:rêve’il en fut jamais》(1771年)是第一个未来主义乌托邦——或“uchronia”——其对食物的处理表明,对食物的关注是革命前法国当代不平等和未来和谐的重要标志。本文通过麦西耶小说的三个营养特征:食物正义、食物安全和共同性来考察食物的乌托邦式未来。通过将这些比喻视为巴黎社会公认缺陷的反映,它表明了通过此类文学实验鼓励想象粮食危机的理想解决方案的重要性。《L’An 2440》中提出的与食物有关的批评和理想是通过参考启发它们的历史经济和社会问题而被置于背景中的。总之,Mercier对18世纪的关注和他对25世纪的预测被认为与21世纪的食物挑战有关,而此时正处于作者饮食史年表上这两点之间。
期刊介绍:
The Australian Journal of French Studies is an international, fully refereed journal devoted to French literature, culture, society and history. The journal encourages new theoretical engagements and particularly welcomes interdisciplinary approaches. Articles are published in English and French. The majority of numbers are focussed on a specific theme, but numbers on miscellaneous topics will usually be published annually.