Eating in Dickens and Gogol Social Communion or Spiritual Lack

Gina Pagano

Date of Award

2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Wallace, Miriam

Keywords

Food in Literature, Dickens, Charles, Gogol, Nikolai, Hunger, Spirituality, Capitalism

Area of Concentration

Literature

Abstract

This thesis explores the overwhelming inclusion of food scenes in literature. Food and eating in nineteenth and twentieth century works of fiction signify larger desires, such as sexual appetite, spiritual attainment, and social communion. I explore the specific literary and historical treatment of food and eating in Dead Souls (1842) by Nikolai Gogol and �A Christmas Carol� (1843) by Charles Dickens. Dickens and Gogol communicate social problems specific to 1840s England and Russia in their depiction of hunger, feasts, and gluttony. While both authors use food to signify class tension in the rise of a marketeconomy in England and Russia, Dickens�s use of food posits a more constructive vision of community in contrast to Gogol. Feasting functions as a builder of community in �A Christmas Carol,� while in Dead Souls, eating satirizes the spiritual and moral decay of Russia�s burgeoning middle class. Dickens�s use of food is ultimately more life-affirming than Gogol�s; the former promotes the formation of a cohesive social order through the secularized Christian feast at the expense of individual appetite.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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