Chocolate and Bread: Gendering Sacred and Profane Foods in Contemporary Cultural Representations

Abstract

According to Maud Ellmann, food is ‘the thesaurus of all moods and all sensations’ (Ellmann 1993: 112). It is, she suggests, not only an important signifier within culture and the symbolic order, but it also plays a vital role in our sense of self. This claim provides the starting point for this article's analysis of two symbolically charged foodstuffs: bread and chocolate. In what ways, and to what ends, are these foods gendered? How do these foods shape the construction of identities? And how do their associations with notions of the sacred and the profane inform those constructions? These questions will be addressed by focusing on two contemporary female-authored novels: Chocolat by Joanne Harris (1999) and Give Them Stones by Mary Beckett (1987).