Conferences & Workshops

L'art de savourer - The Arts of savouring. From the land of milk and honey to the dîner en blanc

Online study days

Dates: 13 December 2024, 17 January 2025, 7 February 2025, 20 February 2025

Organisation and direction: Professor Kirsten von Hagen (Giessen), Dr Corinna Dziudzia (Gotha)

Food often awakens cravings, memories or experiences of happiness: Such as Madeleine dipped in lime blossom tea, to which Marcel Proust (1871-1922) created an enduring monument in his monumental novel In Search of Lost Time. Proust enchants his readers not only with descriptions of the fine salons of the Belle Epoque, but also with depictions of refined dining culture and exquisite culinary delights. His novels are as much a seduction to read as they are to eat and savour. The planned online study days aim to trace the European art of savouring - also in comparison with non-European traditions - and its staging in other arts, such as literature, film or the visual arts. From the culture of the banquet, to writers who invite guests to the table, to the correspondence of the senses of Marcel Proust. It is about texts as well as other artistic media in which food is characterised by love, seduction and memory. Focussing on the semantics of food not only allows conclusions to be drawn about the staging of memory, but also about the constitution of identity, the transformation of intimate relationships and different literary, visual or cinematic aesthetics in general. It is no coincidence that the aesthetic and moral category of taste has its origins in the experience of flavour. As early as the early modern period in Europe, a variety of new flavours, which are now commonplace, became widespread, including luxury foods from distant parts of the world such as coffee, cocoa, tea and tobacco. Changing lifestyles are evident not least in the pots and on the plates - and documented in Arts.

Please send registrations to: Corinna.Dziudzia (at) uni.erfurt.de