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Literary Criticism Women Authors

Writing the Meal

Dinner in the Fiction of Twentieth-Century Women Writers

by (author) Diane Elizabeth McGee

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Oct 2002
Category
Women Authors, General
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780802085764
    Publish Date
    Oct 2002
    List Price
    $50.00
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780802035417
    Publish Date
    Aug 2001
    List Price
    $77.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442683723
    Publish Date
    Nov 2002
    List Price
    $97.00

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Description

In most cultures, women are in charge of meals and the rituals and customs surrounding meals. Writing the Meal explores the importance of dinners and other meals in fiction by Edith Wharton, Katherine Mansfield, Kate Chopin, Virginia Woolf, and other women writing at the turn of the twentieth century. The author proposes that the depiction of meals has particular significance and resonance for women writers, and that these presentations of meals reflect larger concerns about women's domestic and public roles in a time of social and cultural change.

Dinners serve as both a metaphor for the work of art and a source of inspiration for the fictional artist, while some works of fiction can be read as meals offered to the reader. As part of a larger domestic experience, dinners propose a new artistic language, which can be a crucial component of twentieth-century women's art.

About the author

Diane McGee is Associate Dean, John Abbott College, Ste.Anne de Bellevue, Quebec.

Diane Elizabeth McGee's profile page