The Utopian Future of Food in Louis-Sébastien Mercier’s L’An deux mille quatre cent quarante: rêve s’il en fut jamais (1771)

IF 0.1 4区 文学 0 LITERATURE, ROMANCE Australian Journal of French Studies Pub Date : 2021-04-01 DOI:10.3828/AJFS.2021.03
J. Dutton
{"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.
查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
《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。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
CiteScore
0.10
自引率
0.00%
发文量
28
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.
期刊最新文献
A Spiritual and Intellectual Vagabond: The Chequered Career of Yves de Vallone (1666–1705) On the Paratexts of Early French Maritime Dictionaries (1670s–1770s): A Diachronic Study Margaret Sankey: A Life of Scholarship Présence auctoriale dans les films de Marguerite Duras Writing for the Papers: Colette’s Chroniques and the Question of Genre
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1