Posted by Sophie Boka, GD Creative Non-Fiction Reader for 6.2
While writing on Maryse Condé’s novel Victoire: les saveurs et les mots, it’s hard not to recall the tried-and-true cliché, “you are what you eat,” observing how the phrase extends from the literal bites we impale with our forks to our various forms of literary self-expression. The French title of Condé’s novel literally translates into the English “Victoire: the flavors and the words,” signaling how connected our taste is to language, each, arguably, serving to construct bits of the identity that defines who we are: the “you” who is what you eat. Whether through a poem, essay, or graphic novel, food appears peppered within every genre, yet, quite often, it goes unnoticed, without adequate attention given to its delicious literary functions. Eager to uncover food’s power within our own publication, with eyes, perhaps, bigger than my stomach, I decided to take a look at a few pieces published in past issues of Gandy to see just how intertwined the food that enters our mouths can be with the words that leave them. Continue reading
