'Mon callalou': Maryse Condé writing herself as female cook. (3rd July 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tebben, Maryann
• Is Part Of: Modern & contemporary France. Volume 29:Number 3(2021)
• Page Start: 281
• Page End: 299
• Publication Date: 2021-07-03
• Subjects: France -- History -- 18th century -- Periodicals; France -- History -- 1789- -- Periodicals; France -- History -- 20th century -- Periodicals; 944
• DOI: 10.1080/09639489.2020.1828321
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0963-9489

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article analyzes two works by Maryse Condé, Victoire: les saveurs et les mots (2006 ) and Mets et merveilles (2015 ), spotlighting the figure of the female cook. It proposes a rereading of Victoire, the fictionalized biography of Condé's grandmother, in light of the more recent autobiographical work Mets et merveilles in which Condé refers to her penchant for cooking as a crime of 'lèse-majesté' against her profession as a writer. Victoire stands out in Condé's fiction for its emphasis on cooking and food. In Mets et merveilles Condé uses the theme of cooking as a tactic to encourage readers to return to Victoire in order to cement her legacy as an author, enabled by her established practice of rusing with her readers and supported by the recent growth of academic food studies as a scholarly discipline. Rereading Victoire in light of Mets et merveilles presents Maryse Condé as a writer-cook anchored in Guadeloupe, post-nomadic, proud of her cooking but still proudly intellectual, creating a space for Caribbean food writing and for her unique culinary mixtures.