Speaker: Carolyn Nadeau

Food motifs and metaphors, culinary imagery, and gastronomic inquiry play a significant role in the development of Cervantes most renown novel, The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha. Readers immediately recall the second sentence of the novel that portrays Alonso Quijano by his weekly diet. Additionally, food representations enliven the pages with semiotic clues that reveal the protagonists state of being (whether sane or crazy); ethnic, class, and social identities of the many characters; and cultural norms of breaking bread, sharing meals, and lively post prandial discussions. These representations often serve to destabilize the text and bring into question notions of fiction and truth and appearance and reality. In this way, these rich food motifs lend themselves to many of the major underpinnings of the novel."