Comensalidade: comer e estar junto em A Comédia Humana

Abstract

Commensality or the act of eating and drinking together is often disregarded in dealing with food issues and problems. A majority space is reserved for what we eat, and we only marginally think of the "how" we eat. However, it is already known that commensality affects food issues, so that the Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian population reserves a chapter to this element of the food cultural system. To think about commensality, I choose to start with the literature, because I understand literature as something fictional that allows a reflection of reality, because reality and fiction are in constant exchange. Eating together seems to accompany the way we are together and live in the world. Therefore, my goal is to understand where, by commensality, being together in the The Human Comedy specializes. Being together, in this case, is neither dual nor plural, nor does it seek a fusion of bodies, but turns to the Other. I will do this by reading and making a thematic analysis of five works selected from Balzac: Memoirs of Two Young Wives, Eugenia Grandet, History of the Grandeur and Downfall of Cesar Birotteau, Le Colonel Chabert and Lost Illusions. In which I found, respectively, five distinct spaces of commensality occurs, respectively: the body, the dining room, the saloon, the office and the restaurant.