He Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts

MCGILL UNIVERSITY

THE LANGUAGE OF FOOD IN THE FICTION OF BARBARA PYM

GABRIELLE COLLU

Department of English McGill University, Montréal

A thesis submitted to ~he Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts.

Pym's twelve novels. They al~ used on one hand for purely comic purposes. But more significantly, they evolve into a language with a structure and set of rules. To expose the language of food inherent in Pym's fiction, l have employed a combination of social history, structural anthropology and semiology. Roland Barthes' application of structural linguistics to food, and his concern with its' symbolic nature hold particular bearing to this study. The language of food functions on three interrelated levels in Pym: a social level uhere groups are defined and hierarchisedi a gendered level where the sexes are defined and differentiated; and a more personal level where an individual either communes or alienates him/herself from a given group. Identity, whether national, social, sexual or individual, is confirmed in relation to eating habits and roles surrounding food preparation and consumption. with the help of cornplex strategies of irony, Pym uses the language of food to signal an interest in social and gender reform by presenting the artificiality of social constructs and gender stereotypes. iii

Résumé

La nourriture occupe une place importante dans les

douze romans de Barbara Pym. D'une part, elle est utilisée

dans un but humoristique, mais de façon plus significative,

la nourriture devient un langage avec sa structure et ses

r~gles. Je m~ suis servie d'un mélange d'histoire sociale,

d' a'.lthropol..., rie structurale et de sémiologie pour mettre en

évidence la présence du langage alimentaire dans l'oeuvre de

Pym. L'application de la linguistique ~tructur.ale à la

nourriture réalisée par Roland Barthes, ainsi que l'intérêt

qu'il a porté à la nature symbolique de l'alimentation, sont

particulièrement pertinents à cette étude. Le langage de la

nourriture se retrou~2 à trois niveaux dans Pym: à un niveau

social 00 les groupes sont définis et hierarchisés; à un

niveau ~exuel 00 les deux sexes sont identifiés et

différentiés; et à un niveau plus intime 00 un individu peut

soit s'associer avec, soit s'aliéner un groupe. L'identité

(nationale, sociale, sexuelle ou individuelle) est confirmée

au travers des habitudes alimentaire ~t des rôles qui se

rapportent à la préparation et la consommation de la

nourriture. En utilisant des stratégies complexes d'ironie,

Pym se sert du langage de la nourriture pour présenter la

nature artificielle des conceptions sociales et des

stéréotypes sexuels, ainsi que pour souligner son intérêt

dans la réforme sociale et sexuelle . ... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 am grateful to Michael Bristol, Dena Goldberg, and Thérèse Dufresne for their constant encouragement and support. Special thanks to Stéphanie Meunier whose contribution has been essential to the development of this work. My gratitude to Paul Dufresne, a faithful and demanding reader throughout aIl stages of this project. But above aIl, l thank my mother who by caring for my daughter gave me the time to pursue this study. v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Page numbers of Barbara Pym's novels, as weIl as those of A Very private Eye, are noted in parenthesis with:n the text using the foll'Jwing abbreviations:

Sorne Tame Gazelle EW Excellent Women JP Jane and Prudence LTA Less Than Angels GB A Glass of Blessings NFR No Fond Return of Love

Qb Quartet in Auturnn SDD The Sweet Dove Died AFGL A Few Green Leaves UA An Unsuitable Attachrnent

AQ An Academie Question CH Crampton Hodnet

A"PE A Very private Eye CV civil to Strangers .. ------

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ...... iv

List of abbreviations ...... • . . • . . .. v

Table of contents . . • . . • . . • . . • • . . . • .. vi

Introduction ...... 2

1. Social difference 27

Englishness 28 Class difference • 37

Tea and coff~e: the class difference . 51

2. Sexuali ty and food • . . . . . 62

Nurturing women and helpless men 63

The male chef • . • • 92

Annrexia 104

3. Communion and exclusion 110

Notes ...... • . . . 137

Works Consulted • . . • . . • . • • • . • . . . • .• 13~ ( Where eating is no longer a matter of absolute survival, the preparation and contexts of food are laced with social syrnbolisrn. Eating appears to be utterly natural - like breathing, an essential part of our survival. Sa it is hard ta imagine that along with the nourishrnent we might be swallowing a whole lot more besides. (Coward,

1987: 109) 2

INTRODUCTION

When l began reading the novels of Barbara Pym, l was

struck by her interest in thd ordinary, the banal "feminine"

everyday things such as clothes, food, furniture, flowers,

and a whole range of objects from victorian bibelots to

jumble sale trinkets. Rapidly, l became aware of the

particular importance of food as taking precedence over the

other interests. Descriptions of food ca~e up again and

aga in in her novels, as weIl as in her diaries, though to a

lesser extent. Usually the food was rather dull in itself:

cauliflower cheese, cod, roast joint, i.e typical English

fare. At that point l hegan to wonder about the significance

of food in her work, and to notice the conspicuous absence

of criticism on that specifie facet of her work.

Virginia Woolf appreciateà the significance of food in

society when she wrote in A Room of One's Own that "It is a

curious fact that novelists have a way of rnaking us believe

that luncheon parties are invariably memorable for something

very witt Y that was said, or for something very wise that

was done. But they seldom spare a word for what was

eaten." (Woolf, 1989: 11-12) She would not have reproved Pym

for this oversight. Pym's novels abound with descriptions of meals planned, prepared, served, and consumed, along with the characters' reflections in connection to food, and their i

3 '. attitudes in regard ta various occasions and situations

related to its consumption. In fact, her sister Hilary and

her friend Honor Wyatt four.d the relation between pym's

writings and food 50 relevant that they put together The

Barbara Pym Cookbool< which is, as Hilary Pym suggests, lia

combination [of] recipes for cooks, and useful references

and reminders for Pym readers who are more interested in the

idea and associations of food tha~ the actual preparation of

it."(Pym, Wyatt. 1988: xiv) l will venture a step further in

that direction by affirming that food is in Pym's work, lia

system of communication, a body of images, a protocol of

usages, situations, and behaviour,"(Barthes, 197<): 167)

which is used as a means of questioning social constructs

and moral values.

Pym recognised the place of food in society, its' role

as a system of commun~cation, and incorporated food as part

of the social framework of her fiction. She was aware of the

anthropologists approach to food and eating hablts, having

worked for twenty-eight years, from 1946 to 1974, for

"Africa," the Journal of the International African

Institute. She began as a research assistant, revising

manuscripts, compiling bibliographies ~n~ indexes; her first

job at the institute was to assemble :he Ethnographic Survey

of Africa.(Salwack, 1987: 23) In 1953 she was made assistant

editor to Daryll Forde, and shp Yêpt that position until i11 health forced her to resign il. 1974. Four issues of Africa , ____ J 4

were published annually, and, in Hazel HOlt'sl words,

"Barbara saw themall through the press, at every stage,

from the initial editing to the final proof-

reading." (Salwack, 1987: 26) In an article written for The

Times in 1978, Pym made a direct connection between the

anthropologist's social scientific study of human behaviour

and the novelist's art. She wrote that the anthropologist's

"work often showed many of the qualities that make a

novelist - accurate observation, detachment, even sympathy.

It only needed a little more imagination, plus the leavening

of irony and humour, to turn their accounts into

novels." (Pym, 1978: 18) Her experience may also have enabled her to take the position of an outside observer of food, one more competent to comment on food choices and attitudes, and to place them in a larger context of meaning. In 1978, she said on a radio talk,

l learned how it was possible and even

essential to cultivate an attitude of

detachment towards life and people, and how

the novelist could ever. do "field-work" as

anthropologists did. (CV, 384)

Pym's work among anthropologists influenced her fiction in various ways. Not only did she make the link between anthropology and novel writing, she even compared herself to an anthropologist observing and commenting on people, their 5 habits and customs, and applied the concept of "field-work" to her fiction, in particûlar to the realm of the alimentary. Through her elaborate descriptions of meals an0 individual foods, it becomes clear that food is indeed a system of communication.

The French theoretician Roland Barthes has expressed interest in the semiological analysis of ordinary, everyday things, such as food, in several of his works. Mythologies presents and interprets myths of French daily life; âY§tème de la mode is an elaborate structural analysis of women's clothes described in fashion magazines; Elé'ments de sémiologie refers specifically to the language of objects, clothes, and food. Barthes is a contemporary of Pym, and his works offer a new and enlightening approach to her fiction, in particular her use of food as a system of communication.

The food system is a complex one because food, while it is undoubtedly used to convey messages, nevertheless is first and foremost needed to preserve life. Barthes calls food a "fonction-signe" because of its' double purpose:

Ce mouvement d'échange entre la fonction et

le signe ... se retrouve probablement dans un

grand nombre d'objets culturels: la

nourriture, par exemple relève à la fois d'un

besoin physiologique et d'un statut

sémantique: les aliments rassasient et 6

signifient, ils sont à la fois satisfaction et communication. (Barthes, 1967: 266)

Satiety and significance, satisfaction and communication, these are the words Barthes associates with food, and they express weIl the complexity of the role of food in society. It is impossible to consider food purely as feed. Its' meanings are intricately linked to one's feelings and innermost beliefs about human relations, as weIl as one's

innate ser~e of identity. Both food and emotions are situated in the viscera of our bodies, a region deep and private which is guarded discriminately from the unwanted penetration of foreign objects or beings.

Although aIl food has the same primary f~nction as a nutrient necessary for sustenance, society offers a wide range of choice of the foods we can eat, how we eat them, when and with whom. We also have the choice to prepare the food ourselves, to have someone else prepare it, or to buy it already prepared. Because there is a conscious choice, we may safely assume that a reason or a message lies behind a particular choice. In ~ur micro-wave oyen and fast food society, the decision to take the time to prepare a meal from scratch can signify caring, for example. Food choices are deterrnined in part by habituaI cultural impulses (education, nationality) , but also by the deliberate des ire to identify with a social group, or in certain cases to 7 differentiate oneself from a group. And, if as Brillat savarin first suggested, you are what you eat, the choice, whether conscious or unconscious, acquires enormous

implications. In the following excerpt from ~, Pym overtly uses food choices as a gauge of character: the three of them began making their selection. In sorne subtle way this reflected their different characters. Edwin chose spam and stewing steak, Letty prawns and peach halves, Norman sardines, soup, butter beans

and the macaroni cheese. (QA, 175)

Their choices tell the reader what they like to eat, but more importantly who they are. AlI three live on their own and eat alone, therefore will not trouble themselves with elaborate cooking. Edwin is a meat eater, though the kind of meat he eats is bloodless, weIl cooked and fragmented, which somehow reflects on his widowerhood, and perhaps even his virility. Letty is an older woman, who still entertains the possibility of elegance and romance entering her life, hence

her choice of prawns and peach hal ves. Norman f s choice of foods connotes lower class, and it is easy to imagine him eating his beans and macaroni right from the tin. Moreover, his obvious enjoyment of these foods characterises him as a glutton. In short, Edwin, Letty and Norman'b choice of foods

',' 8 follows the same codes that shall be elaborated throughout this thesis. By referring to a fictional world, consideration must also be given to the author/narrator's conscious decision of

describing ~ particular meal, or relating certain foods, and food patterns. The fact that food comprises such a large and vital part of pym's fiction indicates to the reader the

importance of food, not simply a~ a concrete detail oI the social setting of her fiction, but also and more importantly as a powerful symbol at the core of Pym's fiction. The

complex méaning of that symbol is a probl~m l shall explore in a close analysis of the different uses Pym makes of the language of food. She was aware of the suggestiveness of preparing and presenting food, and of the manner and the context in which it is consumed; she presented the complexity and richness of meanings conveyed by food and

eating patterns throughout her ficti~n. In this study, l will discuss social, sexual and individual meanings of food, and disclose how they form a system of communication in the fiction of Pym. AIl twelve published novels, three which came out posthumously, will be considered, as weIl as A Very private Eye, the published àiaries, letters, and notebooks.

Special attention will be paid to Some Tame Gazelle, Jan~ and Prudence, Quartet in Autumn, and A Few Green Leaves. The language of food, according to Barthes, is ( constituted with significant oppositions, rules of exclusion 9 (taboos), rules of associatjon, and protocols of use which function like a rhetoric of food. There are a number of significant oppositions in the language of Lood; hot and cold, sweet and sour, bland and spicy, thick and thin are just sorne of them. These oppositions are associated with certain meap.~ngs. It is dismaying to be offered a salty desert in North America; however, in other countries, the la st course of a meal will be savory rather than sweet, i.e. chee se in France. AIso, a hot m~al is considered more nourishing than a cold one in Western society, and in Pym, a man will be served a hot meal when the woman feels he has a special need for nourishment. Avice Shrubsole prepares a casserole for her husband's lunch because she feels he needs a "good lunch" before his ante-natal clinic. (AFGL, 142) In this quote, a good lunch is coded as a warm meal in direct opposition to a cold lunch which lacks the nourishing properties. Every society has its' rules of exclusion concerning food. In our society, for example, we will not eat animaIs who are considered pets, nor will we eat human flesh, yet we know that other societies do or have eaten such meat. Sorne exclusions can be of a personal nature: the vegetarian will exclude meat, and the vegan will go a step further in excluding the subproducts of animaIs as weIl. Other exclusions issue from health concerns, like the exclusion of butter in favour of margarine, and from the fear of the 10 , .. after effects of certain foods, such as the bad breath that follows the consumption of garlic, or the flatulence induced by beans. Another form of exclusion must be considered because of its important influence on food habits: the rule of exclusion associated to religious observances. Exclusions of a religious nature function both as a religious language and

an alimentary one. Mary Douglas2 , as an anthropologist, has expressed great interest in the place of food in modern society. Like Barthes, she recognises the significance of food, and she endeavors to study and amass data on food patterns in view of discovering its' meanings in society. In Purity and Danger, she discusses religious exclusions in Mosaic dietary laws. She demonstrates how these laws Lepresent the social and religious concept of holiness, wholeness: "holiness is exemplified by completeness.

Holiness requires that individuals shall confor~ to the class to which they belong. And holiness requires that different classes of things shall not be confused." (Douglas, 1984: 53)3 Dietary laws, hence rules of exclusion preserve order, unit y and integrity. Likewise, Pym exemplifies in her fiction, how rules of exclusion support a social and cultural structure. When Jane Cleveland avoids using garlic in her salad, she is deliberately differentiating herself from another group of people, those who use garlic: "I should have liked the kind of life where one ate food Il .' flavoured with garlic, but it was not to be."(JP, 178) Jane, married to the vicar must live as a clergyman's wife, she therefore excludes garlic from her diet. This exclusion permits her to identify with other clergy families (In Anthony Trollope's Barchester novels she finds her models), and to distinguish herself from those who eat garlic (foreigners?) • Rules of association also form the structure of the language of food. Like any other code, food cornes in an ordered pattern, whether it be expressed in the year by feasts, and holidays; in the week by Sunday dinners; in the daily menu composed of breakfast, dinner, tea and supper; in a meal with its courses, or even in a course with its food

aS80ci ~ions (rneat and two veg.) Each of the se units are structured in turn with rules of order and function: Between breakfast and the last nightcap, the food of the day cornes in an ordered pattern. Between Monday and Sunday, the food of the week is patterned again. Then there is the sequence of holidays and fast days throughout the year, to say nothing of life cycle feasts, birthdays and weddings.(Douglnci,

1972: 62)

sunday is associated with the joint in English culture. Douglas writes that the Sunday dinner is the rnost structured 12 meal: "The principle is that at this high point of the week's menu, Sunday dinner, the meat is produced as one unltary piece which is not to be cut into until the meal is assembled; stew is impossible on Sundays." (Douglas, 1982: 99) She explains that the meat must be in one piece on special occasions (in this case Sunday, a holy day and a festive one where the family cornes together to partake in this meal) because the meat must refer to the entire meal system. The rule is that the whole must be found in the part, and the part must be a metonymy of the whole. In that sense the joint is a symbol of British diet. Its' regular appearance on Sundays reaffirms British identity. In STG, we witness the importance of the association of Sunday with this tradition: The day had begun as other sundays did. After breakfast Belinda had consulted with Emily about the roast beef ... Belinda had suggested that they might have a lighter luncheon than usual, a3 there was so much to do, but Harriet was not going to be cheated of her Sunday roast, ••. (STG, 102)

To deprive Harriet of her joint would be dishonest and irregular, and would disrupt her entire system of values. In simpler terms, if you can not count on the Sunday jointr { what can you count on? 13

The nature of a meal as a unit composed of several

courses is also defined by rules of association. When one or

several of these courses are absent, the meal is not

recognisable as a meal anymore. In her article, "Deciphering

a Meal," Douglas tells of the resistance of her family when,

to save time she suggested serving a one course meal. Even

after she added pudding, they still did not consider it a

proper meal: "What sort of a meal is that? A beginning and

an end and no middle.n(Douglas, 1972: 61) A meal, like a

story, must have a context and a structure. The same can be

said for any unit of the food code, whether it be the

individual food or the dietary habits of a group of people.

Significant oppositions, rules of exclusion and association are aIl, to a certain extent, relevant to my studYi however, the element which shall be of tantamount importance in the application of Barthes' theory of food semiotics to Pym's fiction, are the protocols of use.

Barthes writes:

la parole alimentaire ... comprend toutes les

variations personnelles (ou familiales) de

préparation et d'association (on pourrait

considérer la cuisine d'une famille, soumise

à un certain nombre d'habitudes, comme un

idiolecte.) Le menu, ... illustre très bien le

jeu de la Langue et de la Parole: tout menu

est constitué par référence à une structure 14 (nationale ou régionale, et sociale), mais cette structure est remplie différemment selon les jours et les usagers, tnut comme une "forme" linguistique est remplie par les libres variations et combinaisons dont un locuteur a besoin pour un message particulier. (Barthes, 1985: 31)

The "speechP of food, that is, the specifie messages conveyed in the organisation of meals and menus, the actual preparation of food, and its consumption is composed of individual, familial, and societal signs. It is possible to read in a meal, the nationality, social class, culture, and most probably the sex of an individual. Douglas proposes that, If food is treated as a code, the messages it encodes will be found in the pattern of social relations being expressed. The message is about different degrees of hierarchy, inclusion and exclusion, boundaries and transactions across the boundaries. Like sex, the taking of food has a social component, as weIl as a biological one. (Douglas, 1972: 61)

For example, the fcod served on a table is directly related ( \I-lith the social occasion, it is lia medium for purely social 15 symbolism, from private hospitality to great ceremonial

dramas. " (Douglas, 1982: 117) And while you may share drinks

with a stranger, you will share your meal only with close

friends, special guests and your family. (Douglas, 1972: 66)

Moreover the meal will be prepared in view of the expected guests: "Belinda will want to know the numbers. It makes

sorne difference with the catering, the arrangement of the table and that kind of thing .•. "(STG, 97) The type of food served will also differ, because sorne trouble must be taken for special guests, while friends and family can be offered a more simple meal: Il i t was only because they had been having the curate to supper that there had been anything more than a withered apple or orange in the bowl this evening."(STG, 14) Through the protocols of use, boundaries are defined, and identity is confirm~~: personal, sexual, familial, social, as weIl as national identity.4

As l have already pointed out, with the help of

Barthes, food holds more than a nutritional value, it is a language with a structure and rules. Furthermore, it "enters the moral and social intentions of individuals."(Douglas,

1984: 10) In Pym's fiction, social values are expressed in part through food. In that sense, food functions as an embedded discourse in her novels relating to the narrative, as ta society. Susan J. Leonardi, in an article entitled

"Recipes for Reading: Summer Pasta, Lobster â la Riseholme, and Key Lime pie" explores the nature of recipe giving, and 16 from her essay l borrow the concept of embedded discourse. Leonardi foeuses on the meanings of giving, receiving, or withholding a recipe, in the context of cookbooks, novels, and her own essay which is a brilliant example of embedding "a recipe in a text that meditates on the recipe as embedded discourse."(Leonardi, 1989: 347) According to her, recipe sharing and recipe readlng are also gendered discourses, because they are more accessible to women. Pym describes menus, its' components, and its' meanings, in relation to who is eating, who is preparing the food, who is expected for dinner, and so on. She places food in a social context, and to the reader it becomes ân embedded discourse, with gendered meanings because women encode and decode food, while men usually miss the meaning.

Finally, the message that cornes thr~ugh aIl the descriptions of meals in Pym, is that social values are culture specifie. In other words, one will naturally abide by certain rules concerning food because one is the product of a certain milieu and time. Diane Benet calls this "the relative nature of concepts of suitability."(Benet, 1986: 13) And this notion imbues the word "suitable," which cornes up again and aga in jn Pym, with tremendous irony.

Pym uses the m~dium of food to comment, with a critical eye, on the belief that "our" way is the right way. We, as individuals assoeiate our way of eating, or preparing the ( food we eat, with the proper way of eating, or preparing. We 17

associate =he food we eat with goodness, and good food means

more than good for your health, it implies moral goodness.

When Wilmet Forsyth is irritated by her friend Mary's

goodness, (Mary is, l believe, what Pym would calI an

"excellent woman") she indulges in what she would naturally

consider, being a woman, "bad" food: "1 turned jnto a sweet

shop that made special truffl~5 l liked and bought half a

pound, thinking rather defiantly of Mary as l did so." (GB,

83) Mary is a "fine person": generous, altruistic, self

sacrificing, but she also appears to Wilmet as boring, dull,

plain-Iooking, naive and dowdily dressed. wilmet wants to

differentiate herself from "poor Mary," as she calls her,

and because she associates her goodness with her dullness,

wilmet buys the self-indulgent, pleasure-giving sweets. This

excerpt follows a shopping episode where wilmet and Mary's

ways of dressing are sharply concrasted, making Wilmet feel

selfish and spoiled, which in fact she is. After this

polarisation, they are connected through their love of

poetry, and this connection terrifies Wilmet: "1 cou Id not

bear to think that she might have read my own favourite

poems, and my one idea now was to escape from her as quickly

as l could."(GB, 83) Her initial attempt to distance herself

from Mary consists in flaunting her preference for frivolous

novels rather than poetry, and then, as an act of supreme -- revoIt, she buys the sweet and expensive truffles. 18

Underneath the social and moral values conc~rning food - the line dividing the two is very fine in the world of Pym - is a more universal Christian value based on love and tolerance. Sophie Ainger refers to tnis idea of respect and love of our neighbor in UA, without fully understanding its scope: love somebody in a sort of general Christian way. She remembered sorne lines from a hymn For the love of human kind Brother, sister, parent, child •.• (UA,

193)

pym makes good use of the food metaphor to convey a message of tolerance of difference, foreignness, unconventionality, homosexuality, high-church Anglicanism which l shall refer to as Anglo-Catholicism, and sa on. There is a radical difference between Anglicanism, or low-church Anglicanism, symbolising aIl that is simple and essentially English, and Anglo-Catholicism which is foreign, exciting, extravagant, and also dangerous because of its' leanings toward Rome. In Pym's novels, the Anglican chur ch is the expression of the

norm, of stability, tem~erance and Englishness, while High Chur ch is exotic, suspect and sinister. Even where High

Church is predominant, in ~~ and GB, the sObering weight of the norm is felt. 5 Anglo-Catholicism ls to Anglicanism what ( foreign cuisine is to English fare. 19

We are not usually aware of our behaviour with food

which is instinctive and ~pontaneous.

We simply do not know the uses of food, and

our ignorance is explosively dangerous. It is

more convenient for us to take a veterinary

sl'!'geon' s view of food as anima l feed, to

think of it as mere bodily input, than to

recognize its' great symbolic force. (Douglas,

1982: 123)

Pym's novels however, place food at the center of attention,

and not merely as "bodily input. Il Pym was extremely aware of

the possible meanings of food, and her originality as a

fiction writer resides in the meanings which her characters,

in particular her women, assign to food. In her novels, she

devises a symbolic language of food.

Pym uses the language of food to comment on society, and to quietly criticise its' mishaps. The language of food perrnits Pym to depict the complexity of social relationships, class difference, and boundaries between classes and sexes. The language of food also sheds light on the absurdity of strict social and gender codes of behaviour, reflecting on their relative value. Therefore, the food code serves not only to promote tolerance, but also to undermine, with the help of strategies of irony, social 20 constructs without directly attacking the foundations of British society. The surface comedy of manners of Barbara Pym's novels misleads many readers with the perception that her comic world is reassuring in depicting a simple world in a gentle and benign manner. Beneath the light comedy however, lies a darker side, an irony, questioning society, its' values, beliefs, and stereotypes. The irony is often manifest in the autllorial voice, directly embedded in the writing, as weIl as the product of the sharp tongue of sorne of the female characters, and narrators. A central irony emerges around which aIl the other ironies revolve, and from which they are reflected. This dominant irony lies in the fact that Pym presents us a society with a set of values which are accepted and invoked as natural and normal by her characters, but which in reality are not universally followed by most of these characters. Sorne characters will hold thesc values up to ridicule, look upon them cynically, or simply express dissatisfaction towards them. It is significant that although most characters do not adhere to the norm, they do not expect or des ire a drastic change in society either. Pym's irony questions more often than it threatens. A second irony is that food occupies the central place in Pym's novels, and in the lives of her characters, and r appears to replace the intimacy desired by most of her 21 characters. This irony reveals the sadness of food. Desired intimacy, or human contact, which finds expression in the language of food, is ultimately replaced by the more readily available, less threatening, and less fulfilling (emotionally) food. In other words, food is the most significant manifestation of intimacy in Pym's novels. Her characters rarely communicate, show affection or make love, but they share meals and discuss food. Food, symbol of life, love and intimacy supplants the former rather than supplementing them. While food promotes tolerance and respect of all men, joining them on the same plane of humanity, it also presents the reality of alienation, exclusion and aloneness. This paradox enables Pym's vision to develop "from a feminine ta a universal perspective and from the comic to the tragic mode."(Benet, 1986: 2) Sorne readers of Pym are oblivious to the subversive intent of her writing, which finds expression through the cast of eccentrics, originals and independent minds that do not heed the norme Several critics have written that her novels are about ordinary people doing ordinary things, that Pym merely described the narrow world she knew without commenting on larger issues. Robert smith wrote, "Barbara Pym's world, and this is its charro, is a closed one: an enchanted world of small felicities and small mishaps." (Salewack, 1987: 59) While Robert Liddell suggested .- that, 22 Her books often seem to come to us like gifts

of nature like the air we ~reathe or the water we drink (but purer and more wholesome). l do not know what a critic would find to say about them if others had not been in the field before him, and hdd made errors that needed correction - there would be little to do except to tell the stories of the novels ••• (Liddell, 1989: 8)

Even more recent feminist criticism misinterprets the intent of Pym's irony. Pym's novels are not about "'excellent women': good aunt, good churchwoman, informed spinster, conscientious social worker, meticulous housekeeper" (Salewack, 1987: 60) but instead are about women who do not fit the mold of excellent woman, who preGisely do not care to marry or learn how to cook.

Most of the scholarship on Pym is of a very traditional, thematic nature, often discussing the influence of the church, of anthropology, and of other authors on her fiction. Occasionally it takes the form of a descriptive summary of Pym's oeuvre, from early to later works. The two aspects l ~onsider central to her work, the language of food and Pym's use of complex strategies of irony, have rarely been studied. Three notable exceptions are the articles of Mary Anne Shofield, Doreen Alvarez Saar6 and Barbara 23 Bowman. In a short article entitled "Patterns of Cooking and

Eating in the Novels of Barbara Pym," Shofield7 attempts to apply Claude Levi-strauss' an~lysis of the process of civilisation through the medium of food to Pym's novels. She affirms that the process of culturing with women as

"culturers" preparing the cooked food and men as "culturees" eating it, forms the thematic center of Pym's novels.

However, like Levi-strauss' endeavour to find the universal meaning of food, Shofield's generalisations fail. Firstly, she wrongly assumes that cooked food directly represents culture as an essential category in Pym, while in fact it reflects the active negotiation of cultural values. One can not read the act of cooking food as an allegory of the process of civilising simply because it entails moving away from the natural state, and because it carries cultural signs. Secondly, not all of Pym's female characters are, as

Shofield implies, concerned with feeding men. Nor is it obvious, as she states, that civilising men is a "socially necessary process." Moreover, she perce ives the fact that women do not cook for men in terms of failure. That is to say Shofield believes that these women do not cook for men simply because they are unable to cook, and this assumed incompetence condemns them to an eternity of spinsterhood.

It is clear that Shofield misreads both Pym's novels ana the intention of her irony. She is guilty of the patriarchal assumption that aIl women want and need a man to nurture, 24 while Pym, on the contrary, subverts this assumption. Shofield does recognise the inherent lack of communion and communications symbolised in the eating patterns; however, she unjustly places the blame on women and their inability to cook. The relationship between men and women and food in Pym's subtle writing can not simply be reduced to a raw/cooked, nature/culture, male/female dichotomy. In "Irony from a Female Perspective: A study of the Early Novels of Barbara Pym," Saar opens the door to a feminist interpretation of Pym's novels. She points to Pym's use of irony, presents its' development in her novels, and sees it as "an indictment of society's treatment of women."(Saar, 1987: 68) According to Saar, Pym inverts many of the conventions of the sentimental novel, for example presenting middle aged heroines, married men as love interests, offering no marriage at the end of her novels, or extremely pragmatic and unroffiantic courtships. This has the effect of foregrounding her interest in the incongruities of romantic relationships, and the disparity between women's expectations and reality. Barbara Bowrnan, "Barbara Pym's Subversive Subtext: private Irony and Shared Detachment," also makes light of irony as a subversive device challenging the dominant culture. This article was published in a collection of essays, Independent Women, edited by Janice Rossen which,

(, although several articles take a biographical and historical 25 perspective, emphasises a more theoretical, primarily feminist approach. Bowman perce1ves Pym's use of irony as a much more complex phenOlllenon than Saar presents, invol ving the participation of the narrator, the characters, as the reader. She reads the women characters as subordinates in a male dominated culture, and suggests that irony serves ta underline the discrepancy between female assumptions of reality, and the dominant culture's assumptions. Female characters - using the example of Mildred(EW) in this quote - "often outwardly advocates conventional behaviour while carrying on an elaborately layered dialogue with herself that subverts the conventional."(Bowman, 1988: 82) Bowman also points out that male characters do not perce ive the discrepancy between the two assumptions, while women, as compensation for their inferior status, share superior knowledge, the "power to perce ive and judge those around them. " ( 1988 : 85) In a mode st attempt to make good the omission, l shall explore Pym's predominant use of food as a comment on social, and gender pretensions, as weIl as the more intimate meanings of food llnked to a sense of identity vis-à-vis ourselves and others. As Sue Hart remarks, food "deserves more attention when it appears in literature than it has previously received. Indeed, in ignoring the menu, the reader may be missing an important part of the author's message." (Shofield, 1989: 107) 26 Social and gender meanings transmitted by food will comprise the first and second chapters of my thesis: "Social Difference," and "sexuality and Food." In these chapters, l will show how social and gender meanings influence food behaviour, and sirnilarly how these values are transmitted by food. The language of food serves to define national, social and sexual identities; to define a norm and by implication expose marginality. In the final chapter, "Communion and Exclusion," food is presented as a two-sided syrnbol. Traditionally, it is perceived as the expression of cornmunity and intimacy because people corne together to share a meal, an act which suggests exchange and reciprocity. The other side of the coin reveals the absence of comrnunity and intimacy in Pym, and the presence of aloneness, alienation, and failure of communication.

( 27

1. SOCIAL DIFFERENCE

The type of fare eaten, the manners and rites associated to food, that is rules 0f eX0lusion, association, opposition, and protocol can express adherence to a nation or social group, and identify position within that group. Pym, like most of her British contemporaries, recognised social class differences, as her diaries and note books point out. She often referred to "one' s own kind" (AVPE, 169) and she wrote, concerning her attachment to a man named Starky, "Our relationship is physical and intellectual, but not, l repeat not cultural. He has awful manners." (AVPE, 171) This same kind of social awareness is present in her novels. AlI readers of Pym rapidly notice the frequency at which the word suitable appears, and this word is directly linked to protocol p hierarchy, and social difference. The first part of this chapter will disclose how food, like language and religion, defines national identity, and how, within that identity, it classifies groups of people according to their eating habits. This identity is founded partly on rules of exclusion, but it will be elaborated through protocols of use. In a second part, the focus will be on Pym's liction, and how she uses food to present social differences and hierarchies, as weIl as to point out the relative nature of social class. Finally, in part three, the 28 protocols of tea that both unite and divide England will exemplify the negotiation of social differences transrnitted by alimentary habits.

ENGLISHNESS

Barbara Mary Crompton Pym was born in Owestry, on June 2, 1913. She was the first of two girls born to Frederic Pym, solicitor, and his wife Irena. Owestry is a small town in Shropshire, whose population was under 10 000 in the 1920's. In Pym's biography, Holt writes that Owestry was na rnicrocosm of English provincial life, where the social classes were neatly stratified and people knew exactly what their place was in the scheme of things.n(Holt, 1990: 6) Pym's novels are deeply rooted in British tradition. They reflect a conternporary English history of food, as weIl as instated English rules of manner and class. They often depict a middle class English world, and the food her characters eat is usually typical English fare. Therefore it is important to discuss the following two aspects of the English diet: the hierarchy of food surrounding Meat, and the nursery diet, both of which hold gender and social rneanings deeply embedded in English culture. Then, because identity is aiso formed thrüugh comparison and exclusion, foreign foods referred to in Pym's work will be discussed. 1 r

29 There has been a longstanding tradition in British society to encourage a certain group of people: women, children, invalids, clergymen, and those with sedentary occupations to reduce their intake of meat, in particular red meat, because it was believed that red meat had the properties of enhancing animal qualities like strength, passion, lust, and anger. Jean-Jacques Rousseau certainly corroborated these beliefs, and amusingly associated meat consumption with the British: " ..• il est certain que les grands mangeurs de viande sont en général cruels et féroces plus que les autres hommes; cette observation est de tous les lieux et de tous les temps. La barbarie anglaise est connue ... "(Rousseau, 1964: 168-9) He had previously praised, in the same chapter, the discriminating taste of his own people, the French. A hierarchy of foods was therefore established around meat as the central component of a meal. Red meat, like beef, was at the very top of the hierarchy, followed by veal, pork, chicken, and fish at the bottom in view of its' virtual absence of blood. Animal products, such as eggs and cheese found a place in the hierarchy below fish. They were nonetheless considered sufficiently high on the scale for a meal to be organised around them, while vegetables could not occupy the central place in a meal. 8 The meats at the top of the hierarchy were also associated to wealth and luxury, an indulgence to be avoided: 30 Let us seek meats to nourish, not things to ruin us; seek meats for food, not occasions of diseases, of diseases both of soul and body: seek food which hath comfort, not

luxury which is full of di~comfort: the one is luxury, the other mischief; the one is pleasure, the other pain; the one is agreeable to nature, the other contrary to nature. (Homily 27 on Acts)

This excerpt taken from John Chrysostom's twenty seventh homily to the Acts is very mu ch part of the background to British beliefs concerning the consumption of meats. Pym would most probably have been brought up in full awareness of this belief. stay away from red meat, or cook it extremely well to get rid of all the blood, and do not eat too mu ch meat; to borrow Jane Cleveland's words, do not worship meat. Jane then associates meat to going abroad: "'people in these days do rather tend to worship meat for its own sake,' said Jane, as they sat down to supper. 'When people go abroad for a holiday they seem to bring back with them such a memory of meat. '"(JP, 22) Both Rousseau and Jane believed in the 'dangers' associated to red meat, and both identified these evils with countries other than their own. parallel to the hierarchy of foods, a nursery diet was elaborated, that is a diet appropriate for children, 31 wetnurses, pregnant women, the sick, and the invalid. 9 This diet was composed of simple, bland, mostly vegetarian, and overly cooked foods, such as white bread, warm milk, boiled chicken, white sauce, and groats. And this type of food remains associated in the rninds of the British as comforting food reminiscent of childhood, in the same manner, in a smaller, more humble scale, than the madeleine dipped in tea evoked a surge of memories for Proust's narrator. Honor

Wyatt writes: "Barbara, for sorne reason, was 'off her food' and couldn't fancy anything till l spoke the magic word

'groats.' To children of pre-war generations, this bedtime cereal was a treat when one was feeling poorly, a symbol somehow of a mother's loving care." (Pym, Wyatt, 1988: 110)

The reasons behind the elaboration of a nursery diet are to avoid the corruption of taste and character in children, and temptation for those Pym refers to in her fiction as the weaker brethren, those whose passions should not be aroused.

In her novels, clergymen explicitely belong to the group of people who should stick to bland, unstimulating foods.

The English diet is safe and reassuring to the English, like French cooking is to the French. The fact that "the pattern of the British dinner [is] stereotyped and almost traditional - meat, potatoes and sometimes 'greens,' followed by pudding and helped down with a cup of tea" (Burnett, 1966: 311-2) offers a sense of security and arder in the ever changing world. People tend to be 32 perturbed, and occasionally disgusted by unfamiliar foods, or even by a different manner of preparing familiar food. There are a number of examples of foreign foods in Pym, which are not considered part of the English diet (tradition still exercises powerful influence), and are perceived as exotic, therefore exciting and suspect. Daphne Dagnal1 goes to Greece every year for a holiday away from her brother Tom, whom she has taken care of since the death of his wife: "She spoke with feeling, for the rectory was without central heating, but this was not the on1y reason why her annual Greek ho1iday was the high spot of her life."(AFGL, 8) Greece represents an escape from her dull life of caring for her brother, and from grey and cold England, whi1e offering the illusion or promise for change and romance perhaps. She

often prepa~es greek sa1ad and moussaka (Greek shepherd's pie, as Emma calls it on page 14) in memory of those brief

moments of freedom and adventure. In UA, a group of persons go to Italy and discover osso buco, "a sort of savoury rice

with a bone in the middle, Il (UA, 158) and eat canne10ni. These foreign foods are made 1ess threatening by translation into more familiar terms: moussaka is nothing more than shepherd's pie, while osso buco becomes savoury rice. However these foods loose a great deal more in translation

than merely their menacing quali~y. They become English and insipide ( 33 The most interesting exarnple of food which is diarnetrically opposed to the bland, cornforting English cuisine of well-cooked meats and over-cooked vegetables is garlic. Garlic holds a positive or negative connotation depending on the context. The touch of garlic Prudence Bates adds to her salad shows us that aithough she is eating alone she takes pains to prepare herself a 'good' meal. Prudence is an elegant, refined wornan, and garlic is in her eyes, a sophisticated ingredient intimating the south of France, or Italy: "Although she was alone, it was not a meal to be ashamed of. There was a li ttle garlic in the oily saiad and the cheese was ripe."(JP, 51) In modern day England, garlic rnay aiso connote foreignness, (Indian cooking uses a lot of garIic), and disdain of garlic rnay be a hidden forrn of racism. An exarnple of how unacceptable it is to a rniddle class English family is given when Prudence proposes to add it to the salad at Jane's dinner party: "'Garlic?' echoed Jane in astonishrnent. 'certainly not! Imagine a clergyman and his wife going about the parish srnelling garIic!'" (JP, 178) Garlic is associated to a "kind of life" which is not the one led by the Cievelands. It belongs to a group of foods - leeks and onions are the other two - which -e avoided in anticipation of social embarrassrnent due to their af~er effects: bad breath. Another example of the connotations of these odorous foods is given in the SOD when James has just rnoved to the 34 fIat in Leonora's house. He wonders about the kinds of foods he can cook in Leonora 's house: "lt would obviously be difficult to make a curry or fry onions or fish, for it was unthinkable that su ch smells should be permitted to waft down Leonora' s elegant staircase." (SDD, 120) Refined, elegant, sweetsmelling, and coolly reserved, Leonora is not a person one identifies with garlic. In LA, Deirdre associates garlic with adventure, excitement, and exoticness, the opposite of the type of safe and dull food she is served at home: 'I don't feel like an egg,' said Deirdre unhelpfully. l'd like something different. ' There was an expectant silence round the table. 'Sorne rice, aIl oily and saffron yellow, with aubergines and red peppers and lots of garlic,' went on Deirdre extravagantly. (35)

On the other hand, Letty, QA, moves from her fIat because the ebullient foreignness of her new landlord, Mr olatunde, disturbs her. Part of this foreignness is symbolised by the meal Letty refuses, "a rich spicy smell was wafting towards her. She thanked the woman politely, saying that she had already eaten. 'l'm afraid you would not like our Nigerian cooking,' said Mr Olatunde, with a touch of

( complacency." (.QA, 57) The narrator takes pains to show that 35 Mr Olatunde considers Nigerian cooking ta be superior to English cooking, while Letty finds English cooking more wholesome, less dangerous than the rich and spicy African cooking. Difference scares Letty, "the noise and exuber.ance, aIl those characteristics exemplified by the black girl in the office which were so different from her own." (QA, 51) Later on, she seems ta regret her decision of moving away from the Olatunde's in with Mrs Pope, and she tries ta avoid the later as much as possible "choosing ta cook her meals when she knew that Mrs Pope would not be using the ki tchen. She would crouch in her room listening for sounds, trying ta detect the smell of cooking, though this was often difficult as Mrs Pope seldom had anything fr ied except bacon." (QA, 97) Letty moves in the first place because difference scared her, and difference is symbolised by the Olatunde's rich and spicy food. Ultirnately, her regret is also expressed through food, the dullness of Mrs Pope's cooking, surely typical English fare:

SA Letty had no dlternative but to listen ta Mrs Pope discoursing on her favourite topic of the excessive amount of food most people ate. It was not conducive to an enjoyable meal and Letty could not help feeling that on this occasion she might have done better if she had stayed in her room in Mr Olatunde's

house. A Jolly Nigerian Christmas would 36 surely have included her, and not for the first time she began to wonder if she had done the right thing by moving. (QA, 75)

Letty passes by perhaps her 1ast opportunity for warmth, intimacy, and human contact: "After the vitality and warmth of Mr Olatunde's house Mrs Pope's seemed bleak and

si1ent, ... "(QA, 64) Her punishment for her lack of to1erance and fear of sensuality, is implicit in the realisation of her 10ss of human relations. "Love was a mystery she never experienced. As a young woman she had wanted to love, had

fe1t that she ought to, but it had not come about. "(QA, 47) And now it appears that it will never come about because she has rejected the possibility for a form of love: friendship. This episode is an excellent examp1e of the failure of communications in modern city life, exemplified by the refusaI of partaking in a mea1 because the meal is unfamiliar and thereby threatens order. The theme of the lack of intimacy and communion will be explored more fully in the final chapter, "Communion and Exclusion."

Fo~d is more than simp1y the expression of British middle-class culture in Pym. Besides separating the English from the other nations, the language of food divides classes and exposes hierarchies. Although the descriptions of food are often elements of comedy in Pym's fiction, it is ( '. possible to read in them sharp social commentary. l will 37 follow this line of interpretation in the subsequent section, and present the formation of hierarchies, arbitrary division of classes, and the relative nature of values expressed in the language of food.

CLASS DIFFERENCE

Pym, brought up in a middle class family, native of a small market town was naturally aware of the English belief that, to borrow Lionel Trilling's words, lia man is what he is by virtue of his class membership. His sentiments of

being, his awareness of his discrete an~' personal existence der ives from his sentiment of class." (Trilling, 1974: 115) He goes on to say that accordjng to British novelists of the nineteenth century, the evidences of a movement upward from an original class position are snobbery and vulgarity. Although Pym is not a nineteenth century author, many of her characters embody the belief, as well as form the evidence. Signs of snobbery and vulgarity are signalled in the names given to characters, the clothes they choose to wear, and the objects they either buy, or bring to a jumble sale. And, most revealing of E0cial position is food: individual foods, and the manners and protocols associated to food. However Pym does not merely present the belief, she also questions its' worth. Members of all social classes are the butt of her wit. 38 ( In the article "Deciphering a Meal," Douglas discusses the sharing of food as an index of social hierarchy. Dividing food in two principle categories, meals and drinks, she writes: Drinks are for strangers, acquaintances, workmen, and family. Meals are for family, close friends, honored guests. The grand operator of the system is the line between intimacy and distance. Those we know at meals we also know at drinks. The meal expresses close friendship. Those we only know at drinks we know less intimately. (Douglas,

1972: 66)

She goes on to address the boundaries es~ablished by various types of meals, such as cold meals, everyday meals, or more festive ones, like the Sunday dinner, or the Christmas meal.

The class structure f in relation to the partaking of food, in the novels of Pym, comprises three major levels. First, the sharing of food with people like us: friends, family, social equals. Second, the partaking, or more significantly the not partaking of food with people different from us, either higher or lower on the social scale. And finally, in a class of their own, the clergymen, and the meals prepared for them, which are part of the ( general attitude of respect reserved for men of God. In this 39 section, l shall take into account the type of fare served in relation to the occasion and the guests expected (rules of association), the presentation of the meal, the unspoken assumptions and overt attitudes which are expressed mostly through protocols of use, and which reveal social values. In STG, Pym's first published novel, and the only one where aIl the characters were directly inspired by friends and acquaintances, Belinda and Harriet (fictional projections of Barbara and her sister Hilary) receive guests on several occasions. The meals that are served are closely discussed and descrir~~. Through meals, we are given an accurate sketch of the social hierarchy of ~he village: who can or can not be served an ordinary meal. l have chosen to focus on this particular novel in this section, because in it one finds the most fully elaborated example of social hierarchy reflected by food.

Edith Liversidge is a close friend of the Bed~ sisters. Moreover, she shares the same social background, although, as we shall see, she proves to be far less considerate than Belinda. She can be offered whatever Belinda and Harriet are eating themselves, and can be invited at the very last minute without risk of offending. When Edith and her companion, Connie Aspinall drop in unexpectantly, Harriet says, "you had better stay to supper, ..• It won't be much but we shall be having it soon."(STG, 87) Although Edith and Connie were not expected, Belinda happily thinks, 40 Why yes, it will be a good chance to repay the baked beans, ... She wondered whether they ought perhaps to open a tin of tangue and get Emily to make a potato salado Or would a macaroni chee se be better? with sorne bottled fruit and coffee to follow that should really be enough • ••. 'Oh, please don't trouble to make any difference for us,' said Connie. 'Bread and cheese or whatever you're having will do for us, won't it, Edith?'

Edith gave a short bark of laughter. 'WeIl, I must say that l should like to feel an effort was being made, even if only a small one,' she said in a jocular tone. '1 think we aIl

like tn teel that.' (STG, 87-8)

Belinda's concern to serve her friends a proper meal, with sorne form of meat, desert and coffee, places her in a much more favorable light than either her sister Harriet or her friend Edith. She knows the rules of hospitali-y, and enjoys abiding by them. Edith expects an effort to be made for her, but makes no such effort for her guests. She invites Harriet and Belinda on one occasion and offers them "baked beans and no sweet, .•. just sorne coffee and biscuits ... "(STG, 44) r (Baked beans is very middle class fare.) And later on in the 41 novel, she invites Belinda for "pot luck," which consists of "Just coffee and baked beans - you know our kind of supper."(STG, 183) She emphasises, by her use of the words "our kind of supper," that they belong to the same group. This is ironie in a way, because it rapidly becomes obvious that Belinda is much more gentlewomanly, in nature if not in birth, than Edith who expects more than she is willing to offer. Not only does Edith of fer Belinda a very ordinary meal, she also makes no effort in presentation and in aIl the social niceties surrounding meals: Belinda stood uncertainly on the threshold of the little kitchen, watching Edith cutting bread and scooping the beans out of their tin into a saucepan. 'Hand me that ash tray, will you?' said Edith, but not before Belinda had seen a grey wedge of ash drop into the beans. 'Drat it,' she said. 'Too late. Hope you don't mind?' 'Of course not,' said Belinda nobly, remembering Miss Prior and the caterpillar. Perhaps there was something after aIl in being a gentlewoman.(STG, 184)

Belinda is shown to be more delicate and refined than Edith. Moreover, she is a kinder and more considerate person, as weIl as a gentlewoman who "nobly" eats whatever she is r 42 offered, avoiding offence and fusse She is soberly aware of the situation and of the role she must play in view of her breeding, and furthermore she recognises the virtues of her role. The first supper planned at the Bedes is in honor of Mr Donne, who is a regular guest but must always be served a

special and copious IDeal, not only because he is a Cl :rate, but also because, as it becomes more and more obvious as the novel progresses, Harriet has the compulsion to feed young, unattached clergymen: '" l thought we might have a cauliflower cheese for lunch today,' Harriet announced at breakfast one morning. 'We shall only need a light meal as we are having the duck this evening.'" (STG, 43) This simple statement leads to a series of complications because Miss Prior, the seamstress, is expected that same day, and she cannot be served "only" cauliflower chêese. Belinda justifies, "You know how she enjoys her meals and we always

gi ve her meat of some kind. el (STG, 43) Miss Prior will expect her meat, and Belinda knows that, nonetheless Harriet argues that Mr Donne cannot be served cauliflower cheese either. She wins the argument, as one feels she always does, and succeeds in reserving the duck for her protegé. Miss Prior will have to content herself with the cauliflower cheese. Although Belinda takes pains to serve a good desert, "damson flan," which, in her words "will make quite a good contras\.., "(STG, 48) she feels guilty about the situation. 43 Miss prior's social status is somewhat problematic. She is obviously from a different class than the Bede sisters because she must work for her living. Rowever, she is several degrees higher than Emily, the maid, because she is a skilled worker, and her specifie skill gives her a more privileged access to the gentlewomen, while of course remaining their employee. Moreover, Miss Prior is acutely aware of her social position, and extremely sensitive about the manner she is treated. The Bedes must treat her with white gloves, wavering between a too close intimacy and a too remote condescension. Belinda is particularly uncomfortable in dealing with the ambiguousness of Miss prior's situation, hence her obsessivc concern with the food she offers her. In her words, she feels a mixture of pit Y and fear.(STG, 156) This social charade is played through the language of food: the elements which compose the meal, the quantity, the quality, and the presentation; rules of association and protocols of use. Miss prior is offered a cup of tea when she arrives, then a lunch of cauliflower cheese and desert. Her meal must be served in a particular manner and place: She [Miss Prior] could never have her meals with Emily in the kitchen, nor would she presume to take them with Belinda and Harriet. They must be taken to her on a tray. She was so touchy, so conscious of her

J ( 44 position, so quick to detect the slightest suspicion of patronage. (STG, 44)

In this quote we see how food rneasures the degree of intirnacy between people. Miss Prior would never eat with sorneone she does not know weIl, or feels ill at ease with, especially in view of their social class. Eating in the presence of Harriet and Belinda, would rnake her feel inferior. The Bedes would also feel uncornfortable eating with a wornan who works for thern in their house, and there is no question of her having lunch with the rnaid. She even

pre fers not to be caught e~ting by Harriet or Belinda, because she feels that the act of eating would reveal her inferior social position: Miss Prior never spent very long over her rneals. She did not like to be seen in the act of eating or drinking, it seerned to rnake her more conscious of her position. (STG, 48)

Belinda is devastated when she finds that Miss Prior has not touched her cauliflower cheese, even more so when she realises the reason behind the snub, a "long, greyish caterpillar."(STG, 49) Belinda offers an egg to cornpensate for the discarded rneal, but Miss Prior has already eaten her sweet, and says: "It would seern funny to have a rneal the ( wrong way around like that, wouldn't it? You wouldn't fancy 45 that yourself nO\!, would you?" (STG, 49) We are made aware of the importance of order in a meal, and 1 suspect it is of utmost importance to a person of Miss prior's class, as an

illustration that she will not stand for ~ess. But Miss prior's delicacy is contravened by her inconsiderateness. Belinda, on the contrary is a gentlewoman, and does not need to reinforce her position. She comments that if she were really hungry, she would not mind eating an egg after her sweet. She vrould even have eaten the cauliflower in order not to cause embarrassment to her host: "If this had happened to her in somebody else's house she would have pretended she hadn' t seen it and gone or. eating." (STG, 49) She does eat Edith's beans flavored with ash. Miss Prior, perhapF feeling Belinda's desperation at the situation, as weIl as her own need to make up for her insensitivity, favorably compares Belinda's meals to Agatha Hoccleve's. Agatha ts married to the Archdeacon for whom Belinda has always had a penchant, morecver she i8 the daughter of a bishop. She is described as always being dressed elegantly, a foil to Belinda who wears dowdy clothes, but Belinda is said to serve better meals. Food becomes the field where Belinda can compete and even surpass her "rival" Agatha. In fact, Belinda's triumph over Agatha in the kitchen, anticipates the other triumph in the romantic sphere when she is offered the leisure to reject - the Bishop's hand, a man coveted by Agatha herself. Belinda 46 is brought to tears of joy when Miss prior describes Agathals meals: Between ourselves, Miss Bede, Mrs Hoccleve doesnlt keep a good table. At least, l never see any proof of it. An old dried-up scrap of chee se or a bit of cottage pie, no sweet, sometimes. rive heard the maids say so, too, you know how these things get about. Scarcely any meat except at the weekend, the sunday roast, you know. You always have such nice meals, Miss Bede, and you give me just the same as you have yourselves, r know that. (STG, 50)

Of the cause of joy, Michael Cotsell writes that it "comes from the release from her feelings of guilt about her poor, rather bitter seamstress and from her feelings of inferiority to Agatha Hoccleve." (Cotsell, 1989: 25) After this occurrence, Belinda muses, "Next time she comes weill have something really nice for lunch, perhaps even chicken ... "(STG, 50) A meal composed around chicken represents the apotheoses of a special meal because chicken is a festive food, often associated in Pym with the reception of clergymen.

( 47 Towards the end of STG, the meanness of Agatha's table is, to our pleasure, directly confirmed when Harriet and Belinda are invited to the Hoccleves' for supper: 'What a shame,' said Harriet indignantly, but Belinda felt that her wrath was directed not so much towards the Church of Rome as the rather dry-Iooking rissoles, cabbage and boiled potatoes which were now set before them. Rissoles! Belinda could imagine her sister's disgusted comments later. At least one would have expected a bird of sorne kind, especially when there was a bishop present, when indeed aIl the gentlemen were in the Holy Orders. (STG, 205)

Rissoles, cabbage and potatoes is certainly poor fare. One feels Agatha should have invested more time and money in a meal worthy of "gentlemen in Holy Orders." Her stinginess is made to seem even more culpable in light of the money she spends on clothes. In Belinda's eyes, Agatha does not fit the code of the clergyman's wife, that is to say sensibly and plainly dressed, like herself: It isn't right, thought Belinda indignantly,

for a clergym~n's wife ta gùt ner clothes from the best houses. She ought to be a comfortable, shabby sort of person, in an old 48 tweed coat and skirt or a sagging stockinette jumper suit. Her hats should be shapeless and of no particular style or colour like my old gardening hat.(STG, 47)

However, Agatha's supreme failing as a clergyman's wife, and more specifically as the Archdeacon's wife, is that she does not offer "111en of God" their due respect and care which comprises giving them the appropriate nourishment. Agatha does not serve her guests the necessary poultry, furthermore the cabbage is stringy, and the coffee is made with coffee essence.

AftE~r the unexpected appearance of Edith and connie at the Bedes previously discussed, another unexpected guest appears and is also invited for supper, Mr Donne. The meal completely changes aspect due to his presence, as does Harriet's attitude and the meaning of her words. She welcomes Mr Donne more warmly than she had previously welcomed Edith and Connie, and when she says, Iike she had said to Edith and Connie, that it would be a simple meal, she lacks sincerity: 'You will stay, won't you, Mr Donne?' she asked turning to him with a beaming smile. 'l'm afraid it won't be much of a meal ... ' she waved her hands deprecatingly. Edith moved into the dining room with a confident 49 step. They would aIl benefit from Mr Donne's presence, she knew, and noted with sardonic approval that there was a large bowl of fruit salad on the table and a jug of cream as weIl as a choice of cold meats.(STG, 90)

Edith had foreseen the improvement of the meal because it is comman knowledge that clergy must be well-fed. There are many other examples in Pym of the tacit rule of serving a special meal to clergymen. The specia~ meal requires both quality and quantity, and thus often means poultry of sorne sort. Margaret Visser writes in her book on the historical and mythological aspects of food, Much Depends on Dinner, "Barbara pym·s novels are full of sly ins ights into cul inary anthropology; in them, Il a bird" is for when clergymen are invited for dinner: elevated, not too fleshy, and with a skin "gold embroidered like a chasuble, Il as Proust put it."(Visser, 1986: 21) Were aIl new curates everywhere always given boiled chicken when they came to supper for the first time? Belinda wondered. It was certainly an established ritual at their house and it seemed somehow right for a new curate. The coldness, the whiteness, the muffling with sauce, perhaps even the

sharpness added by the slices oi lemon, there 50 !... was something appropriate here, even if Belinda ceuld net see exactly what it was. (STG, 11)

Chicken, with its festive air, and connotations of innocence, purity, femininity is prirnarily associatud to

cura tes in Pym' s fiction: IIl'l<.:'.~~·· were the chickens which had been stuffed and roasted or boiled and smothered in white sauce in his [Mr Donne' s] honour." (STG, 231) In Pym, clergymen are usually not considered "real men," in the sense that they should not have "manly feelings," or at least they should repress themi therefore they must limit their intake of red meat, and chicken is the next best thing. The serving of chickan to clergy, with aIl its connotations is an element of comedy, on one hand because it is presented as a social construct, and on the other because it is accepted as necessary and normal. The readers of Pym, although fully aware of the dialectic between the formulated norm and the reality filled with deviations to the norm, ironically come to expect the association as part of the natural order of things in Pym: joint on Sunday, chicken for clergy, and, the subject of the following section, tea on aIl occasions. The repetition of the se rituals contribute to the gent le comedy, while blatantly pointing to their absurdity as fixed and sacred rites. 51

TEA AND COFFEE: THE CLASS DIFFERENCE

The ritual of tea is very much part of English culture, to the point where it has become an institution, and P.D.James, an author who has many things in common with Pym, among them a strong sense of Englishness, expresses this weIl in A Taste of Death ; "He waited while Father Barnes unlocked the front door, then followeà him in and offered to rnake a cup of tea, the British specifie against disaster, grief and shock." (James, 1986, 87) Henry James presents a different aspect of the ritual of tea in the opening of The Portrait of a Lady: Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. There are circumstances in which, whether you partake of tea or not - sorne people of course never do - the situation is in itself delightful. (James, 1963, 5)

These two very different citations, one presenting the comforting aspect of tea and the other the social, serve to point out the importance of the tea ritual to the British. Many references are made to tea in aIl of Pym's fiction, several per novel; associated to a variety of meanings. Tea can sooth and restore after a long and 'ft 52 eventful day. It can offer comfort, and it is this particular connotation which causes Leonora to dislike tea: "Now she was wide awake for the second tirne and there seerned nothing for it but to go down and make tea, a drink she did not much like because of the comfort it was said to bring to those whom she normally despised"(SDD, 146) Leonora does not want to be associated with the type of wornen who appreciate the comfort of tea: women who are lonely or who need to receive and give attention, like her friend Meg. Leonora refuses to accept the fact that she is ageing, becoming less desirable to men, alone and in need of comfort. Her fear of being associated with wornen who need the corn fort of tea, calls to mind wilmetls fear of resembling her friend Mary. Tea is aiso useful as a means to prevent a discussion to degenerate: II wonder whether a cup of tea would help to

see things in better perspective,' •.. lA cup of tea always helps,' said Mrs Mayhew, in a rather high, fluty voice. lIt can never

come amiss. 1 (JP, 153)

And yet, in this case, it does come amiss. Mr Whiting comments, "There was never any necessity for a cup of tea in Canon Pritchardls time. We never had any unpleasantness then." (JP, 154) Mr Whiting is expressing his loyalty to the .( Clevelandls predecessors who never served refreshrnents. 53 Adepts of tea will tell you that there is only one way to prepare a proper cup of tea. The teapot must be warrned,

then the tea leaves, not tea bags, placed in t~e pot, and boiling water poured over. Also, tea must not be left to stew: "'You can hardly calI it the cup that cheers,' said Miss Trapnell. 'If only those girls wouldn't pour it aIl out at once and then leave it standing for about ten minutes. '" (JP, 41) Esther Clovis loses her job as secretary of the Learned Society because she fails to prepare tea properly: The subject of Miss Clovis' quarrel with the President was known only to a privileged few and even those knew no more than that it had something to do with the making of tea. Not that the making of tea can ever really be regarded as a petty or trivial matter and Miss Clovis did seern to have been seriously at fault. Hot water from the tap had been

~ t used, the kettle had not been quite boiling, ~ ! 0 the teapot had not been warmed ... whatever

;.f ~, the details, there had been words, during the '" ~ course of which other things had corne out, ~ ,~ things of a darker nature. (LTA, 10-11) f.. ;.,jj r~ ~.. Several things are at play in this quotation. On one hand, 7, '""- ~ f the making of tea is presented as a serious matter, and Miss g ! 1 54 Clovis who does not appreciate its seriousness, is considered guilty, but the fact that her jOb is at stake because of her idiosyncrasy is ludicrous, unacceptable, discrirninatory, and therefore undercuts the importance of tea rnaking. Furthermore it appears that tea is not really the issue at hand, it hides "things of a darker nature," and

in that sense tea 1S sirnply the last drop. There is also a certain protocol attached to the serving of tea, and at Fabian Driver's tea, we are shown how the pouring of tea can hold tremendous portent. He will ask Prudence to pour out, thought Jessie, a sudden agony of fear breaking through her carefully schooled indifference, and indeed at the sight of the silver teapot Prudence had sat up a little in her deck chair and taken off her sunglasses again. 'I have asked Mrs Arkright if she will kindly pour out for us,' sa id Fabian. 'It is rather troublesorne to have to do it oneself, and l am no good at it.' 'A splendid idea. Then there will be no hard feelings among the ladies,' said Nicholas in his best vicar's manner. 'Would there be hard feelings?' asked Edward in an interested tone. 'Do people like ( pouring out tea?' 55 ••• 'WeIl, it has a certain meaning, sometimes,' said Miss Doggett archly, with a glance at Prudence. (JP, 193)

Prudence had expected to pour the tea as a symbol of her relationship to Fabian, and Jessie, her rival feared that would be the case. But Fabian, in order to avoid committing himself ta either Prudence or Jessie, and particularly to avoid trouble, decided to ask Mrs Arkright to do the honours. It is noteworthy that there is no question of him, or any man for that matter, pouring the tea. The food accompanying tea, as weIl as the way the tea is served, will characterise the social occasion. When Mr Oliver is expected for tea at the vicarage: Flora got out the best tea service and began washing the cups and plates, for it was sorne time since the y had been used. Lovingly she swished the pink-and-gold china in the hot soapy water and dried each piece carefully on a clean cloth. Tea would be laid on the low table by the fire, she decided, with the cloth with the wide lace border. Mrs Glaze had eventually been persuaded ta make a Victoria sandwich cake, there were little cakes from the Spinning Wheel anè chocolate biscuits, and Flora intended to cut some , i

56 cucumber sandwiches and what she thought of

as Iwafer-thin 1 bread and butter. (JP, 66-7)

Florals wafer-thin slices of bread are coded to signify refinement, as weIl as a tendency to domesticity, in opposition to the thick slices of bread her mother Jane prepares (JP, 156), or Helena Napier in another novel(EW, 10). The pink-and-gold china Flora "lovingly" washes also defines the occasion, and Florais desire to present her family as refined. In the same way thin slices of bread are opposed to thick slices, fine china can be contrasted to the thick mugs

Helena is proud to use: "I hope you don t t mind tea in mugs ... l told you l was a slut."(EW, 10) And in SOO, Humphrey, the antique dealer, is shocked to discover that his typist, Miss Caton drinks from a horrjd "thick

serviceable cup": "I can only hope that no~ody has ever seen

you drink f:I'om such a monstrosity. Il (SOD, 65) Moreover, the tea she has prepared suits the cup: la strong cup ot tea with plenty of sugar. l learnt that when l was doing first aid during

the war - treatment for shock. 1 Humphrey glanced jistastefully at the tan coloured liquid in the thick white cup and waved it aside. (SOO, 64) ( i

57 Humphrey cornes from a higher class than his employee. The kind of tea as weIl as the container reflect their respective backgrounds. The word play between the tea Miss Caton prepares and refers to as "treatment for shock," and the actual shock it causes Humphrey, exemplifies their different values and social class. certain foods accompanying tea will connote lower class: " •.• he [Fabian] even enjoyed the fish tea which he had at first thought ~ather vulgar ... He still ate his plaice and chips a little furtively, though, and did not help himself to tomato ketchup as liberally as Jessie did. II (JP, 199-200) On the other hand, a special blend of teas connotes snobbishness and class distinction: "Mrs Pritchard always had her own special blend, something between Earl Grey and Orange Pekoe, ... I suppcse she still has it there, in those exquisitely thin cups." (JP, 199} Tea making is also associated with social hierarchy. In the office where Prudence works, the secretaries usually make the tea. A problem develops when Gloria, one of the secretaries is on holiday, and Marilyn, the other one is taking dictation from Dr Grampian when it is the time to put the kettle on. Prudence offers to make the tea but her gesture is received with shock: "You, Miss Bates? WeIl, 1 hardly think you could, you know. It isn't your place to, or mine, for that matter. rt's rather difficult, really."(JP, 222) In the end, Miss Trapnell prepares the tea, but she 58 1, makes it very clqar that it is not her job: "Marilyn is still in there with him, ... so l had to make the tea myself, there was nothing else for it."(JP, 223) In this particular

situation, ~ .~ ~aking of tea illustrates sexual and social discrimination. It is presented as unthinkable for a man to make tea. Most men do not even realise the importance tea time has for women. About Dr Grampian, Prudence says, "I suppose he would consider that he had a mind above such things,"(JP, 222) meaning tea making and tea time. Tea is prepared by the person at the bot tom of the social hierarchy in an office, a female secretary. The one meaning of tea that cuts through aIl social boundaries is that it is part of English society, and to forego tea would be disrupting the very foundations on which this society is built. When Mildred Lathbury questions the necessity for tea, order is shook up:

'Do we need a cup of tea?' she echoed. 'But Miss Lathbury ... ' She sounded puzzled and distressed and l began to realise that my question had struck at something deep and fundamental. It was the kind of question that starts a landslide in the mind. (EW, 211)

The breaking of a ritual is a subversive act, questioning the need for the ritual, as weIl as the society that promulgates it. The contrary, a reaffirmation of the ritual 59 offers a feeling of stability and security. "Yes, life has to go on, and l suppose a cup of tea does make it seem to be doing that more than anything." (GB, 206) says Father Ransome, thinking about a friend who converted to Roman catholicism. While tea is the national drink which cuts through aIl social classes, and unites England as a tea-drinking nation, coffee still holds traditional class associations, and although more and more people will drink coffee, it still divides the rich from the poor. A significant example of the meaning of coffee is expressed in the ritual of servjng coffee after dinner to guests, especially important ones. In JP, Jane ponders on deviating from the ritual: l suppose we could give Mr Lomax tea, though it wouldn't be quite the usual thing. l wonder if we are well-bred enough or eccentric enough to carry off an unusual thing like that, giving tea after a meal rather than coffee? l wouldn't like him ta think that we were condescending to him in any way because his church is not as ancient as ours. (JP, 15)

Deviation from an established ritual can be perceived as a social gaffe, condescension, eccentricity, or the sign of the independence of the very well-bred. Also, coffee, more 60 expensive than tea, connotes higher class, and the serving or withholding of it, expresses a whole string of meanings: "Clearly coffee was still a staunchly rniddle - and upper class drink. This was the case simply because coffee was still much more expensive than tea. "(Johnston, 1977: 116) Therefore it appears that Jane wanted to save money by serving tea rather than coffee. The frequent repetition of food transforrns it into a code which then acquires a life of its' own. This is precisely what happens to tea (chicken is another example) in Pym. We expect its' use in certain occasions, and we laugh at the comedy behind the importance of the ritual, while realising that tea is an intricate part of English identity, as weIl as social identity. Therefore, tea unites aIl English people under the banner of tea drinkers, but also distinguishes cIas&es by the way the tea is drunk, the kind consumed, and the foods that accompany the beverage. We also notice that it unveils the person's character and moral failings. For example we suspect Jane is thrifty because she tries to escape the custom of serving the expensive coffee after supper. In "Social Difference" l have shown how the language of food elaborated in the novels of Pym, defines national identity, in this case English, through the application of rules of exclusion and protocols of use. Likewise, social identity is confirmed, classes divided and hierarchised. 61 Food acquires a significance which varies according to the nation, class or individual asserting himjherself. In Pym, food expresses social and national identity while simultaneously questioning the arbitrary and relative nature of this ictentity. 62

2. SEXUALITY AND FOOD

As l have demonstrated in the previous section, national and social identity are expressed through the language of food wi th the help of rules \-lhich uphold ièentity, establish hierarchies, and define the boundaries between nations and classes. A more intimate identity is also affirmed through food, one influenced by biological, as well as cultural factors: sexual identity. Sexual identity is affirmed, like social identity, by defining boundaries, for example between so-called normal and abnormal, or marginal behaviours. This type of coding opens the door to the creation of myths, and stereotypes which corne to be accepted as normal, conventional, and accepted behaviour. "Nurtur ing Women and Helpless Men" discusses the existence of a set of values imposed on gender and food relations: men provide and women prepare. However, Pym's use of irony, whether expressed through her female narrators or characters, undercuts the established norme Furthermore, nurturing women in Pym, contrary te the traditional interpretation in patriarchal society, are placed in a superior position of strength and acute perception. Men on the other hand are in a more passive and complacent position, needing women for nurture, while remaining oblivious to the meanings of food. 63 The two other parts of this chapter present extreme examples of deviations from the norm: masculine narcissistic feeding and the nurturing starvation of a woman. "Male Chefs" discusses men who cook in Pym' s novels, and how they differ from women who cook. While "Anorexia" focuses on the character of Marcia Ivory whose self-inflicted starvation is strangely linked to her affections for a man.

NURTURING WOMEN AND HELPLESS MEN

In a family the husband contributes food and the wife prepares it for him. The fact that he habitually (:!ats what she has prepared constitutes the strongest link between them. The mother .. . is the core and very heart of

this institution. A mother is one who gives her own body to be eaten. She first nourishes the child in her womb and then gives it her milk. This acti vi ty continues in a less concentrated form throughout many years ...

(Canetti, 1962: 221)

Gender meanings of food are based on the stereotype of woman as: nurturer, and man as receiver of nurture. From this elemental conjuncture originating from birth, stem gender associations with meals, individual foods, and places and 64 occasions where these foods will be consumed. l will disclose how these associations, which are often taken for granted are, in fact, presented in Pym's novels as social constructs. Therefore the language of food functions on two distinct levels: on one hand it displays the conventional norm, and on the other it demonstrates its' fallacy, or inverts it. In other words, food contributes to the

arbitrary cOding of masculine and feminine be~a~iour, while the underlined irony subverts the se codes. ThLS dialectic is always at work in Pym. Linked to the stereotype of the woman as nurturer and the man as recipient of nurture, is the gender understanding, misunderstanding, or obliviousness of the meanings of food. In Pym's novels, women are more attuned to the significance of food, and as Caroline Walker Bynum points out in her study of the religious significance of food, food was lia particularly obvious and accessible symbol to women, who were more intimately involved than men in the preparation and distribution of food." (Bynum, 1987: 30) She is referring to medieval women, but to a great extent it still applies in the present day although men participate more in the preparation and distribution of food. Even when men prepare meals on a regular basis, they often will not share the ambiguous and intimate relation women do with food. 65

The men in Pym' s fiction are usually blind to the

symbolism of food with the exception of its' power to

satisfy. They have no control over and little understanding

of the language of food. They are unaware of the

significance women place in the preparation, planing, and

offering of food. To quote Emma Howick, "men were not

usually subtle in that way - women were too apt to read into

their actions things that were never even thought of, let

alone intended." (AFGL, 208) Furthermore, because men are

usually oblivious to the meanings of food, they are made

objects of humour, the targets of irony. In the following

excerpt, Fabian Driver, the handsome widower of the village

" is a comic t gure, even more 50 because he takes himself

> < very seriously as he proudly offers a large marrow for the

Harvest Thanksgiving Jecorations.

'What a fine marrow, Mr Driver,' said Miss

Doggett in a bright tone. 'It is the biggest

one we have had so far, isn't it, Miss

Morrow?'

Miss Morrow, who was scrabbling on the floor

among the vegetables, rnumbled something

inaudible.

'It is magnificent,' said Mrs Mayhew

reverently. 66

i , Mr Driver moved forward and presented the marrow to Miss Doggett with something of a flourish. Jane felt as if she were assisting at sorne primitive kind of ritual at whose significance 3he hardly dared to guess. (JP,

33)

Fabian is entirely unaware of the comic connection between the marrow and him, as of the possible connotations of the vegetable, phallic or otherwise. Even the idea of a marrow as a phallic symbol js cornic, and Fabian, the marrow and the ,, phallus are belittled by the association. Miss Doggett and 1 Mrs Mayhew who ridiculously fawn over Fabian and his marrow are also the objects of humour. However, Miss Morrow and Jane are aware of the subtext. Miss Mnrrow who is presented as an intelligent woman with a sharp sense of humour certainly sees the comic aspects of the scene. Jane, unfortunately does not see the humour, but recognises the significance of the scene: a ritual of women nurturing men. In Pym's fiction, there are many examples pointing towaros the societal belief that the kitchen is a woman's world and the preparation of food a woman's job. Often that belief is colored with irony, nevertheless it is presented as a general assumption, 2specially on the part of men: 67

He [Dr Shrubsole] couldn't concern himself

with that kind of social invitation or w~th

the minutiae of housekeeping - what was in

the larder or the freezer, what would be

suitable to give the rector and that kind of

thing. (AFGL, 163)

And Belinda says about the Archdeacon: "1 don't suppose he thought about it at aIl, men don't as a rule, ... they just expect meals to appear on the table and they do. Il (STG, 77)

Men often associate food with women, and expect to be catered to by women. In AFGL, one of the first words Graham

Pettifer utters to Emma Howick (a wornan he had a brief affair with many years age) when he rneets her in the church have to do wi th food: Il l don' t seem to have eaten s ince yesterday. Il (AFGL, 78) Afterwards he telephones to inforrn her that he has rented the "ruined" cottage, and questions her:

" .•. did the milkman deliver there? Perhaps Emma could find out? And bread, potatoes and a few basic groceries - he was sure Emma could arrange that. Il (AFGL, 111) When he has rnoved into the cottage, Graham criticises Emma's choice of groceries: "I was hoping you'd come last night - bring something you'd cooked yourselL"(AFGL, 121) He implicitly reproaches her of not caring enough to cook for him. On the other hand, Emma reads this reproach as the promise of future intimacy: " ... F.mma imagined a future evening occasion 68 , " with something she had cooked for him and a b0ttle of wine that went with it." (AFGL, 121) Graham and Emma have very different expectations concerning their relationship. Graham who has temporarily le ft his wife, appears to want a brief and superficial affair with the advantage of having the woman feed him, while Emma's expectations waver on a more romantic side. The belief that women are born to nurture and men to receive it is so deeply ingrained and accepted as such, even by women themselves who although may consciously be aware of the absurdity of the stereotype, associate nevertheless the role of nurturer to women, and that of passive recipient of nurture to men. Barbara Brothers, in "Women Victimised by Fiction," examines the myth of nurturing women and nurtured men, and how Pym calls it into question. However Brothers

suggests that the myth is male-creat~d and endorsed, and does not recognise the role women play in accepting and promulgating the mythe When Daphne leaves her brother to live with her friend Heather, Mrs Furse worries: "What about his food? And would he be able to do his own shopping?" Even Emma, an enlightened career woman "doubts Tom' s

ability" (AFGL, 128) to cope .... n the kitchen. Emma' s final thoughts on the matter are extremely revealing because of their ambivalence, as weIl as the underlining narratorial irony: t 1 69 It was a mistaken and old-fashioned concept, the helplessness of men, the kind that could only flourish in a village years behind the times. Yet she couldn't help feeling sorry for Tom, pitying him even ... " (AFGL, 132)

Although Emma knows that the helplessness of men in the kitchen is a myth, she feels, or wants to feel that Tom is helpless and might need her. Everard Bone and Mildred Lathbury's relationship in EW develops around the question of cooking meat. One night Everard calls and invites Mildred for supper. Mildred mistrusts Everard's motive, and reads in the invitation that

~~e will be expected to do the cooking, and therefore refuses: '1 rang up to ask if you would come and have dinner with me in my fIat this evening. l have sorne meat to cook.' l saw myself putting

a small ~oint into the oven and preparing vegetables. l could feel my aching back over the sink. l'm afraid l can't tonight, l said baldly. (EW, 202)

Nonetheless, she continues to think about Everard, haunted by the idea of him cooking the meat: 70 I had not wanted to see Everard Bone and the ide a of having to cook his evening meal for him was more than I could bear at this moment. And yet the thought of him alone with his meat and his cookery book was unbearable too ... Men are not nearly so helpless and pathetic as we sometimes like to imagine them, and on the whole they run their lives better than we do ours. (EW, 203)

Despite this attempt at rationalisation, Mildred remains with the guilt: "1 realized that there had been a little nagging worry, an unhappiness, almost, at the back of my mind. Everard Bone and his meat."(EW, 208) And, "This thought led me to worry again about Everard and his meat and how I had refused to cook it for him, •.. "(EW, 210) The guilt unfolds into an overwhelming need for absolution: "In the meantime, I began to think about Everard Bone and even to wish that 1 might cook his meat for him."(EW, 222) Finally, Mildred is offered an occasion to make it up to him: "1 promised that I would cook the meat and I felt better for having done so, for it seemed like a kind of atonement, a burden in a way and yet perhaps because of being a burden, a pleasure. "( EW, 224) When Mildred finally does go for supper at Everard's fIat, she is not expected to cook the meati however, she is 71

asked to help him with the index and the proofs of his

anthropological writings, which, Mildred realises is just

another form of nurture, and is bound to lead to others:

And before long l should be certain to find

myself at his sink peeling potatoes and

washing up; that would be a nice change when

both proof-reading and indexing began to

paIl. Was any man worth this burden? Probably

not, but one shouldered it bravely and

cheerfully and in the end it might turn out

to be not so heavy after aIl. (EW, 237)

Mildred contemplates the relationship between a man and a

woman in a very cynical way, perhaps a realistic one in the

novels of Pym. She suspects that men expect women to support

them, cook for them, clean for them, assist them in their

work, 50 on and so forth. However, she does foresee that

combined with the burden, one might find the compensation of

companionship and a "full life."(EW, 238) In ,-:>ther words,

marriage is a mixed blessing in Pym.

Fabian, the man with the marrow, is aware of the

nurturing instinct in women, and endeavors to bring it out

whenever possible. When he first meets Jane, he plays on her

instinct and on his lonely condition of widower having to

cook and cater for himself, "'One manages,' said Fabian; l 'one has to, of course. '''(JP, 35) Even independent-minded 72 Jane is not immune to Fabian's charm, and pictures him cooking "a solitary lunch," "just beer and bread and cheese, a man's meal ... "(JP, 35) But men are not expected to know how to cook, except for the simplest things: "1 dare say he might make a cup of caffee or boil an eggi you know how men are,"(JP, 35) says Mrs Glaze after having destroyed Jane's illusions about Fabian preparing himself even a meager meal. Jane is dismayed to hear that Fabian will not have to prepare himself a meal, as he implied, but that his cook has prepared a casserole of hearts for him: "'A casserole of hearts,' murmured Jane in confusion, thinking of the grave and the infidelities. Did he eat his victims, then?" (JP, 35) In Jane's imaginative mind, the food he will eat reflects his betrayal. Fabian has the reputation of having been unfaithful to his now departed wife, hence the infidelities. The grave refers to the photograph of himself that Fabian has placed on his wife's grave rather than a tombstone. Jane links the grave and the infidelities with his pretence at having to prepare his own meal. These three deceptions disappoint her greatly. Jane associates the sin of committing adultery with the one of eating impure meat, in this case the meat is not literally impure, although Jane may consider offal as disgusting, but contaminated by Fabian's wiles. Fabian commits two carnal sins: eating hearts, by extrapolation the hearts of women he deceives, i; and making love to women. By referring to him as a cannibal, 73

a person with a loathsome eating habit, Jane is

simultaneeusly insulting him, and differentiating herself

from Fabian perhaps because she fears being charmed by hirn.

Graham, Everard and Fabian expect women te cater to

their needs, particularly in terms of food, and wornen are

guilty of contributing to their expectations by nurturing as

expected. In JP, the narrator presents a tableau,

encapsulating the stereotype, women surrounding a man,

Edward Lyall, their member of parliarnent, and effering hirn

food:

Refreshments now began to be offered and many

ladies came up to him with plates of

sandwiches and other delicacies. Jane saw Mrs

Mayhew offer a plate rather furtively and

heard her say in a low voice, 'oyster patties

- specially for you. l know how much you like

them.' The situation interested her and

amused her; there was something so familiar

about it and yet for a moment or two she

could not think what it was.(JP, 100)

Later the reason behind the familiarity of the event cornes to her, and we are also rerninded of that sarne situation: the pampering treatment accorded to curates. Harriet's hobby in

STG consists in taking care of curates. She sees them as 74 starved men in need of feeding; helpless men in need of her care:

She was especially given to cherishing young clergymen: and her frequent excursions to the

curat~sl lodgings had often given rise to talk, ... There was naturally nothing scandalous about th0se visits, as she always took with her a newly baked cake, sorne fresh eggs or fruit - for the po or young men always looked half starved - (STG, 6)

Although P.O. James writes detective fiction and Pym comedy of manners, they share many common interests in their fiction. For example, their settings are often small English villages and reflect English middle-class values, their characters are unconventional and eccentric, and their narrators express concern with small details, food, objects, and they often refer to other authors within their fiction. On one occasion, James even mentions Pym, and it is safe to say that she had STG in mind when she wrote these words: His most recent library book had been a Barbara Pym. He had read with envious disbelief the gent le and ironie story of a village parish where the curates were entertained, fed, and generally spoilt by the female members of the congregation. Mrs. 75 McBride, he thought, would put as stop to anything like that at st. Matthew's. Indeed, she had put a stop to it. During his first week, Mrs. Jordan had visited him with a homemade fruitcake. She had seen it in the table on her Wednesday visit and had said: 'One of Ethel Jordan's, is it? You want to watch her, Father, an unmarried priest like you!' The words had hung on the air, heavy with innuendo, and an act of simple kindness had been spoiled. Eating the cake, he had felt it like tasteless dough in his mouth, every mouthful an act of shared indecency. (James, 1986: 92)

This excerpt states, in more obvious terms, what Pym merely hinted at, the inevitable link between food and intimacy; offering food and offering love. Certainly, for Harriet the two are equal. The succession of young, unattached clergymen fill her need for "something to love, oh, something to love"! (STG, 15) The expression of her love always assumes the form of nurturing and nourishing. She obviously would not like her love to take a deeper or more physical shape, and when offered the opportunity, she refuses marriage.

Belinda, h~r sister, also expresses her long-lasting love for the archdeacon through food: 76 BelInda was silent, wondering if by any chance there were any plums left and whether she would have the courage to bring the Archdeacon a pot of the blackberry jelly which she herself had made a week or two ago. Perhaps when Agatha went away ... a eake, too, perhaps with eoffee icing and filling and chopped nuts on the top, or a really rich fruit cake ... (STG, 64)

Belinda never gathers the courage to make har offering. The presence of Agdtha, the Archdeaeon's wife, as weIl as the

possibility that her gest~~e might be interpreted as unsuitable are strong deterrents. Not only do women abide to the stereotype of the female nurturer, they also find pleasure in the act of nurturing. This represents the fundamental difference between the sexes, a difference whieh takes root in the ability to love. Feminine love is seen as generous, self-sacrificing, originating from the biological and social experience of giving birth and laetating, and pursuing through the preparation and distribution of food. Women usually find more pleasure in giving than reeeiving, while men, lacking the feminine experience of childbirth and lactation, receive love, nurture, food, with greater ease than they give it. Mark, an anthropologist in LTA, surns up the relationship 77 between man and woman, in this case Catherine and Torn, in the following manner: "It would be a reciprocal relationship

- the woman giving the food and shelter and doing sorne typing for him and the man giving the precious gift of himself."(LTA, 72-3) From a woman's point of view, reciprocity, although desirable, is not essential, giving is a pleasure in itself.

The giving of food is perhaps the greater of the gjfts, a gift of life and love. When Prudence makes sure Dr

Grampian is brought his coffee, "she return[s] to her proofs with the feeling of having done something more worthwhile than emending footnotes and putting in French accents."(JP,

44) She has offered Dr Grampian a sign of her love.

Ironically, the coffee remains untouched, and Dr Grampian will never know ûr suspect the extent of the meaning of her gesture.

In JP, Flora is a young romantic girl filled with expectation of first love. She sees all eligible men in function of her desire for love. Flora's nurturing instincts naturally surge when she sees Mr Oliver reading the second lesson in Church: "Tall, with fairish wavy hair and a thin, spiritual-looking face; he looked a little tired, perhaps even hungry. She must persuade her mother to ask him to supper sorne time." (JP, 37) (Once again desired men are coded as hungry; in need of nourishment.) And when Father Lomax is expected for after dinner coffee, Flora changes her dress 78

and brushes her hair. However, from her first glance of

Lomax, she is disappointed because he is "fair and ruddy

complexioned, with the build of an athlete."(JP, 24) In

other words, he is strong, healthy, virile and well-fed, not

the type of man needing nurture and care. Moreover, he is

old enough to be her father.

The wornen in Pyrn's nove:s usually pre fer their men to

be helpless and to appear to need them: "everybody wants to

be needed, women especially, " (GB, 162) and when they are not needed, they feel rejected. Flora clearly perce ives Lomax's refusaI oi her offering of biscuits as rejection:

Flora çot up and quietly refilled the coffee

cups, offering a plate of biscuits to Father

Lomax. But he refused them with an absent

minded wave of the hand. Meat offered to

idols, thought Flora scornfully, taking a

biscuit herself and eating it. Then, as

nobody seemed to be taking any notice of her,

she a te another and another... (JP, 24)

l would like to point out two interesting things in thls citation. The first one is Flora's use of the expression

"rneat offered to idols" as a comment on the situation. The quote refers to the apostolic decree on the restriction of certain foods, such as meat sacrificed to idols, or that not ritually butchered. These restrictions on food are 79

associated in the New Testament, to the preservation of

chastity: "that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to

idols and from blood and from what i8 strangled and from

unchastity."(Acts 15: 29) To ingest impure meat is to become

polluted, contaminated, in the same manner one becomes

unchaste from "impure" sexual re l,ationships. The "lnalogy is

Jane's (Flora's mother), and since it follows closely her

discussion with her husband of Father Lomax's celibacy, she

seems to suggest that seeing this vicarage family eating

meat might prove too much for Lomax's belief or resolve. ID

Flora views herself, as weIl as the biscuits, as meat

offered to idols. Ambiguously, Father Lomax can be perceived

as either the idol or the good christian who refuses to be

tempted. In either case, Flora's scorn implies that she

perce ives Lomax is in no danger of succumbing. He barely

notices her. The second thing worth noting is Flora's

reaction to the rejection: she eats bibcuit after biscuit

until the guest Ieaves. Food is the out let to her

frustration and boredom. Unable to nurture Lomax because he rejects Flora in favour of spiritual purity, she nurtures herself by indulging in cookies.

Directly associated with the stereotype of the nurturing woman and nurtured man, which is apparently accepted by both sexes, is the existence of gendqr connotations of food. There is particular emphasis in Pym on the importance of a good meal for men where a good meal ., '1

80 ( implies both quantity and quality of the food. Just as men expect women to cater to their needs, they expect to be served bigger portions than women. They must be given nourishing foods like meat(JP, 62), eggs(JP, 56), a cooked breakfast (JP, 102), in short lia lot of food at aIl

timesll(JP, 102). AIso, men can not be expected to eat certain types foods, for example food from tins. To the older generation, anything coming from a tin would be devoid of proteins, vitamins, as weIl as unpdlatable. Miss Doggett describes Fabian's lunch to her companion, Jessie Morrow: "Mr Driver was to have only a light lunch - a salmon salad with cheese to follow. Not tinned salmon, of course, "(JP, ( 191) Tinned salmon is considered a food of the lowe~ classes, but Miss Doggett is primarily concerned with its' unsuitability as a man's food, because it is believed not to contain the nourishing properties of fresh salmon. Jessie's ironic comment emphasises the absurdity of su ch a belief:

liNo, one could hardly give a man tinned salmon.II(JP, 191) On the other hand, a woman would be expected to "make do with a bit of chee se or open a small tin of something.II(AFGL, 14)

An example of the double st~ndard is given when Jane and Nicholas go to eat at the 8pinning Wheel, and Mrs Crampton proposes to cook eggs and bacon for them. Jane is served one egg while Nicholas receives two eggs and more potatoes than his wife. "Oh, a man needs eggs!1I justifies Mrs Crampton. Jane, like Jessie (they are both unconventional ln their

J' 81 way) questions this masculine need, while Nicholas, typically, finds it quite normal: "Nicholas accepted his two eggs and bacon and the implication that his needs were more important than his wife's with a certain am ou nt of complacency, Jane thought."(JP,56) In The Sociology of Food and Eating, Anne Murcott writes that "cultural values about masculinity and fernininity such that the privileging of men when distributing food is ... so weIl ingrained as to be experienced as natural. Il (Murcott, 1983: 3) Privately, Jane doubts these values: "Men needed meat and eggs - weIl, yes, that might be allowed; but surely not more than women did?"(JP, 56) Nevertheless she indulges in che misconception of women needing to nurture: "Perhaps Mrs Crampton's widow- hood had something to do with it; possibly she made up for having no man to feed at home by ministerjng to the needs of those who frequented her café."(JP, 56)

Men and women should not eat the salUe foods, or at least not the same quantities, nor are they expected to participate at the same social events. For ex~mple, the men do not usually appear at bring and buy sales: "Emma had been thinking that no man would dare to attend the sale ... "

(AFGL,68) Adam Prince creates sorne kind of social embarrassment when he appears at this sale carrying a bottle of wine. He has simultaneously broken two social conventions. ~he first one by going to an event usually attended by women, and the occasional clergyman only, the 82 1 " other by bringing an object which is conventionally not

associated with well-bred women: alcohol. This object is

described with the words "red" and "dark" suggesting

violence, passion, strength, vitality - masculine

qualities - in the same way red meat does: "the very dark-

looking bottle of wine," (AFGL, 68) and "sc.. dark and

menacing."(AFGL, 69) In Mythologies, Barthes describes wine

with these words: "Sous sa forme rouge, il a pour très

vieille hypostase, le sang, le liquide dense et

vital."(1957: 83) Mrs Furse, who wins the bottle of wine at

the raffle, shrinks away from it, and is finally offered a

barbola mirror instead. Emma, on the other hand, as a young

woman seemingly longing for intimacy, as weIl as

unconventional, would have liked to receive the bottle: "She

wished she had won the wine, but she had the quince preserve

and a plastic bag containing six rock buns, so perhaps the

morning had not been wasted." (AFGL, 70)

Men are not required to attend hunger lunches either:

"Dr G. and his wife ChristabeJ. came in, turning ,,,,hat had

promised to be the usual gathering of village women into

something of a social occasion. The senior doctor, the

rector, the academic stranger ... "(AFGL, 141) It is generally

assumed that men cannot go through the day without a proper

meal, especially if they must work, and Avice Shrubscle uses

this excuse to explain her husband's absence in view of the f unexpected presence of other men: "He has his ante-natal 83

clinic this afternoon and l always feel he needs a good

lunch before that, so r've left hirn a casserole in the

oven. " (AFGL, 14:2)

A comparison must also be made between men eating alone

and women eating alone. Men seem to worry less about being

seen eating in public alone, and with just cause because a

stigrna is still attached to lonely women in restaurants.

Prudence reflects on the difference, and there is a sense,

in the following excerpt, that women usually do not have the

same financial means as men, therefore the differentiation

becornes a social one as well as a sexual one:

Men alone, eating in a rather grand elub with

noble portals - and women alone, eating in a

srnall, rather grimy restaurant which did

lunch for three and sixpenee, including

eoffee. While Arthur Grampian was shaking the

red pepper on his smoked salmon, Prudence was

having to choose between the shepherd's pie

and the stuffed marrow. (JP, 44-5)

Dr Grampian is served smoked salmon, while Prudence will have to choose from a small selection of more modest foods.

Restaurants that cater to men will not serve the same types of food than those that cater to women. Wilmet Forsyth and

Harry have lunch in a place Wilmet qualifies as being "a rather masculine restaurant famed for its meat •.. " (GB, 87) 84 Also when Prudence has just learned of Fabian's attachment to Jessie, She chose a restaurant which was rather expensive, but frequented mainly by 'Ylomen, so that she felt no embarrassrnent at being alone. Here, she knew, she could get the kind of food she deserved, for she must be more than usually kind to herself to-day. A dry martini and then a little smoked salmon; she felt she could manage that. (JP, 224)

Prudence feels rejected and food is her solace. It makes her feel worthwhile to eat something refined and expensive. However, she chooses carefully a place where her aloneness will not be noticed. Miss Doggett's frequent remarks, which are also picked up by other characters, on what men want become a runnjng joke in JP: "They say, though, that men only want one • thinq - that's the truth of the matter." (JP, 79) And, a few pages later Jessie, with her sharp tongue, ironically remarks on men's nutritional needs: 'Of course. l shouldn't like to keep you from your steak. A man needs meat, as Mrs Crampton and Mrs Mayhew are always saying.' She waved her hand in dismissal. 85

Fabian hurried away, conscious of his need

for meat and of the faintIy derisive tone of

Miss Morrow's remark as if there were

something comic about a man needing meat. (JP.

62)

This playon what men want is linked to the emphasis on what

men need, and everyone, including the reader wonders what

that thing is exactly. 1s it red meat and/or sex? 1s it a

good wife who can cook, or is it simply, as Jane suggests,

"to be left to themselves with their soap animaIs or sorne

other harmless ljttle trifle?" (JP, 146) The men in Pym

usually lack a sense of sexual energy, and would probably

pre fer to be left to themselves, as long as the presence of

a suitable woman to cook for them can be assured. To borrow

stephen Latimer's words, "there was something comforting

about the idea of having a wife, a helprneet, sorne body who

would keep the others off and minister to his needs."(CH,

63-4) The men in Pym want a woman around for the purposes of

cooking, cleaning, and protection from other women. 1t

appears they pre fer the security of a marriage of

convenience, rather than passion, love and intimacy.

The relation of women to food is very ambivalent,

because while women are seen as nurturers, the providers of food, they should not indu Ige in food, or enjoy it themselves. Certain types of food are considered 86

"inappropriate" for women, or perhaps more suited to men's physiological needs. 11 While other foods have even acquired the affiliation to a sex because of their connotations. As discussed in "Englishness," red meat is obviously masculine because it exudes power, strength, passion, sexuality, while chicken, being a white meat devoid of blood, suggests femininity. Rousseau defines the tastes proper to the female palate as being milk products, sweets, pastry, deserts, and those unsuitable for the consumption of women; meat, wine and liquor. In discussing the education of

Sophie in Emile, he writes:

.•. elle vint à bout de lui persuader que les

bonbons gâtaient les dents, et que de trop

manger grossissait la taille. Ainsi Sophie se

corrigea: en grandissant elle a pris d'autres

goûts qui l'ont détournée de cette sensualité

basse .

.• • Sophie a conservé le goût propre de son

sexe: elle aime le laitage et les sucreries;

elle aime la pâtisserie et les entremets,

mais for~ peu la viande; elle n'a jamais

goûté ni vin ni liqueures fortes: au surplus

elle mange de tout très modérément; son sexe,

moins laborieux que le nôtre, a moins besoin

de réparation. (Rousseau, 1964: 486) 87

This quote is a rich source of common social prejudices linked to women and food. The first is that women naturally like and dislike the foods appropriùte to their sex. (Even the notion that certain foods are appropriate or not for the consumption of a specifie sex is absurd.) Secondly is the opinion that women should eat moderately, and should not succumb to the sin of gluttony, on a par with the sin of adultery. Rousseau associates eating to a low sensuality in the case of women and recommends that they watch their appearance (complexion, teeth, and weight) because the y mus~ attract men. Thirdly, women work less than men, therefore they need less nourishment.

Bynum writes that in the Middle Ages, "heavy food, especially Meat, was seen as more appropriate for men and lighter food for women, in part because ment had, for a thousand years, been seen as an aggravator of lust."(Bynum,

1987: 191) Wilmet, a bored, married woman unexpectantly finds herself having lunch with her best friend's husbdnd:

We met at a rather masculine sort of

restaurant, famed for its Meat, where great

joints were wheeled up to the table for one's

choice and approval .... When the joint came

to us l found myself turning aside with a

kind of womanly delicacy, hardly able to look

it in the face, for there was something

almost indecent about the sight of Meat in 88 such abundance. AlI the same it was very splendid beef and l found myself eating it with enjoyment, even relish. (GB, 87)

These words expose the hypocrisy of social conventions. Wilmet knows that socially she should not appear to want meat, especially since the meat is raw and full of blood, signifying power and passion, moreover it is in abundance, connoting wealth. Nonetheless, she obviously enjoys the meat, perhaps even more so because it is shared with a man who is not her husband and flirts with her. However, the

relationship does not evolve, and each goes ba~k to their respective spouse. The sharing of meat represents the height of their intimacy. Interestingly, when Harry's wife Rowena

learns about the episode, she remarks: "AlI tha~ wonderful meat. He never takes me there."(GB, 135) In this excerpt, red meat is associated to the excitement of an illicite relationship, and connotes masculinity and sexuality. On the opposite side of the food spectrum is dough, a feminine food due to its' soft texture, round shape, and warmth. The association becomes even more evocative when the woman kneads the dough. Virginia Woolf and Pym rolate this event in their fiction, and in both cases it acquires tremendous portent, in particular a sense of freedom linked to the pleasure of creating, of making food with the implicitness that it will be offered with love. (According 89

to Douglas, "one of the worst sins against food is offering

it without love or friendship." (Douglas, 1982: 116))

Moreover, the excerpt from The Waves is an exc~llent example

of the way food bears sexual connotations.

l go then to the cupboard, and take the damp

bags of rich sultanas; l lift the heavy flour

on to the clean scrubbed kitchen table. l

kneadi l stretch; l pull, plunging my hands

in the warm inwards of the dough. l let the

cold water stream fanwise through my fingers.

The fire roarsi the flies buzz in a ~ircle.

AlI my currants and rices, the silver bags

and the blue bags, are locked again in the

cupboard. The meat is stood in the oven; the

bread rises ir, soft dome under the clean

towel. (Woolf, 1988: 67)

The passage written by Pym, captures a beautiful moment of communion between food and woman. Like the previous quotation, it describes the woman kneading and rolling the dough, however while Woolf infuses the act of making bread with sexual energy and poetry, Pym reveals the humour in the banal and domestic task.

This afternoon she felt a great sense of

freedom and spread the things around her in a

most wanton manner, though the recipe did not 90 need cornplicated ingredients. The secret seemed to lie in the kneadin9 or rOlling, which was to be carried out for a full half hour or until the paste was qui te smooth and 'of the consistency of the finest chamois leather', as the Count's translation of the Italian read. When Belinda had been kneading and rolling for about ten minutes she felt she must reste It was exhausting work, and the paste was nowhere near the desired consistency yet. It was sticky, full of little lumps and greyish looking - not at aIl like any kind of chamois

leather. (STG, 219)

As Cotsell points out, while Belinda is hard at work at kneading the dough, she is reminded of Keble: "The trivial round, the common task ... " (Cotsell, .1 i89: 26) And she wonders whether he, a man, would hav'" ''':derstood the domestic task: Belinda imagined him writing the lines in a Gothie study, panelled in pitch-pine and weIl dusted that morning by an efficient servant. Not at aIl the same thing as standing at the sink with aChing back and hands plunged into the washing-up water. (STG, 228) 91 Finally, when Belinda succeeds in attaining the "desired consistency" for the dough, the event is described as one

which fills her with tremendous joy: ~he joy of achieving

something af~er hard labour, and the joy of creating

something beautiful. In Pym's world, joy ~omes with toil, love with burdens. And, the preparation of food, the act of nurturing, although they are looked upon as burdens

acbitrarily assigned to wow~n, are nonetheless often

accepted by these women, and transformed into posi ti':'~ acts, infused with love and strength. In Pym, the position of power traditionally held by men, is subtly subverted, without women needing to step out of the role of nurturer, one that can certainly be pleasurable for them. The capaci ty to nurture is presented as a sign of strength and generosity, as weIl as an expression of love. Men are perceived as weak because they need women for nurture: physical, emotionê.l and material. But, the food metaphor is Janus-faced, and the second side reveals the loneliness of many women because the intimacy is never attained, or only through the partaking of food. In Pym's world women are expected to be nurturing, the men are perceived as helpless, and despite their apparently complementary natures, they rarely meet. Perhaps because they are too diametrically opposed, but more probably because they are fixed within strict stereotypes. Relationships can not be solidly built on shaky myths. 92

Furthermore Pym subverts these myths by introducing characturs who do not conform to the stereotyp~. She presents men who can and enjoy cooking, sorne who are even nurturing. Interestingly, even though these men enter into relationships with food, they do not attach the same meaning to food as women. Food is not the multi-îacetted and

~motionally charged symbol that it is for women, instead it is "bodily input," "animal feed" (Douglas, 1982: 123), and

jobs or hobbies. Moreover, their attitude in relation to food and nurture is selfish and self-indulgent rather than generous and self-sacrificing.

Marcia Ivory's extreme asceticism offers a sharp contrast to the indulgence of the male cooks. The male cooks pre fer to nurture themselves rather than others, while

Marcia refrains from nurturing herself as weIl as others.

Her starvation is nonetheless linked to her affections for a man. Instead of showing her love conventionally through nurture, she stacves herself for attention.

THE MALE CHEF

After having established the existence of the stereotypical view of women as the providers of food and men as the recipients, Pym reverses our expectations in rnany cases. Edith Liversidge, Helena Napier, Esther Clovis, vio~·

Dace, Mrs Forbes, Mrs Mallow, Phoebe do not feel the need to 93 feed men, or worry about whether they have eaten, and sorne

of these women can barely cook. Sophia Ainger i~ UA sends her husband, the vicar for fish and chips. Emma Howick, who can cook fairly weIl, fails an omelette, "the kind of thing that every woman is supposed to be able to turn her hand

to .•. "(AFGL, 14) And Ja'.1e Cleveland, vicar's wife, is unfavorably compared to her predecessor, in terms of her ability to cook: " .•. Mrs Pritchard filled her position weIl.

And she wa~ a wonderful cook. l know that. They say Mrs Cleveland hardly knows how to open a tin. It isn't fair on

the vicar." (JP, 150j She even sends her husband "out for lunch at least once a week." (JP, 32) As a woman, and even more so as a vicar's wife, Jane should excel in the domestic art, instead she does not know the first thing to cooking: "Mrs Glaze was to have left her somothing simple and womanish for her evening meal, the kind of thing that a

person with no knowledge of cooking might heat Up."(JP, 128) This statement is implicitly contradictory. Mrs Glaze has left Jane simple and feminine food, but also food which is uncomplicated to prepare; however, Jane because she is a woman, should know how to a cook. The profound ambivalence of the relation between women and food is also revealed: a woman should eat plain and simple foods, but she should be versed in the art of preparing elaborate and wholesome meals for others. r " •

94 On the other hand, Adam Prince, Wilf Bason, F'elix

Mainwaring, william Caldicote, Norman, Bill Sedge, ~ocky

Napier prepa~e, and enjoy food. Mark Ainger is even aware of the resonance in fish names. Usually this type of insight is feminine: Rock salmon - that had a noble sound about it, though he believed it was actually inferior to real salmon. Skate - he imagined that was one of those fIat bony fish, with the teeth showing in sardonic grin. Only plaice was familiar to him ..• (UA, 15)

However, Mark's insight in the possible meanings of fOGd is undermined by the comedy. In "Male Ct>efs," l will focus on three men, Rockingham Napier(EW), Adaa Prince(AFGL), and wilf Bason(GB) who dety the stereotype, cook and even nurture in certain cases. l will also show how, even though they prepare food, their relation to food differs on several levels from that of women. Firstly, they do not endow food with meaning as women do. Food is feed for them, not the symbolic language it is for women. Secondly, cooking is their hobby, ~r job, never the obligation or burden it can be for women. Additionally, they are justified for their marginal behaviour by the absence of a suitable women who will cook for them. Adam and wilf are bachelors, whereof Rocky is married to an 95 i... anthropologist who is cailed a "slut" in the domestic sense,

that is to quote tne dictionary "a dirty, slovenly

woman." (Random House) Finally, cooking is a self-centered

act for these man rather th an the free gesture of giving

that it is for women.

Befo~e initiating the discussion of these three men, l

would like ta compare the preparation of the evening meal by

a man and a woman in a particularly difficult sltuation, a

power failure. This comparison will serve to underline the

dissimilarity between the masculine and feminine attitudes

towards food preparation: "Emma had not started to cook when

the power failed, and her supper consisted of gin and tonic

and boj'.ed eggs and toast on fire."(AFGL, 200) And, "Torn had

also recourse to drink - the rernains of a last Christmas

bottle of whisky from Dr G. came in handy and he found sorne

bread and cheese, proud of himself for such

resourcefulness. "(AFGL, 2 00 ~ The signif icant difference

between these two excerpts rests in the attitude of the

protagonists. Emma naturally prepar~s her meal, as she do es

every evening, while Tom feels proud of himself as if he ~as

accomplished something particularly cornmendable. The

diff2rence in the masculine and feminine approach to the

~reparation of food reflects the general attitude relayed by

society: it is natural for women, and not for men to

nurture. Mr Coleman's remark in GB, gives thè gist of the 96

attitude: "I think sorne ladies cook very weIl. In sorne ways

i t' s funny to see a man cooking." (GB, 57)

Adam and wilf both hold jobs which are not considered

typical masculine jobs. Adam, who is a gourmet critic,

"didn' t count as an ordinary man who went out to work or did

a 'proper' job, fiS you might say."(AFGL, 43) And wilf,

housekeeper ~nd cook at the clergyhouse, is described by

wilmet as "rather an odd young man, but l should think he

will he an admirable housekeeper." (GB, 62) Even their names

seem te. suggest a lack of viri l i ty. Sybil remarks, "Bason or

Basin is that his name ... That might be a good omen. 1'\':

least oLt has a domestic sound about it." (GB, 31-"n

They see themselves as having exquisite taste for food,

certainly superior to any member of the female seXe wilf's

attitude is more obvious as he enters in direct competition

with women. His attitude towa-r:-ds the clergymen he cooks for

is proprietary and motherly. He refors to them, quite

unsuitably, as "those poor things."(GB, 242) He sees himself

as a "deus ex machina" relieving the curates from the dreary

diet of Mrs Greenhill. And as an artist equating his roeals

to poetry: "what poetry there is in cooking! poor Mrs

Greenhill hadn't an idea beyond boiled cùd or macaroni

cheese for Lent." (GB, 138) wilf's cornments on Mrs Greenhill

are spiteful and catty: "Well, a change had to be mad(>. The

state of that kitchen, you wouldn't believe it! l should

think baked beans and chips was about aJ l she knew how to 0' 97 cook." (GB, 57) And he goes on ta say, "I feel that women

don't reaIIy understand the finer points of cooking or appreciate rare things .... AIl the greatest chefs have been men ... (GB, 57) Iroi1ically, wilf is not really a chef in the true sense of the word, he is merely a cook at the clergyhouse. In fact, he is not expected to cook elaborate and lavish meals, but he does and often to comic effect. For example serving fried octopus during Lent. Wilmet questions his choice: "I wonder whether they ought to eat anything actuaIIy deliciou9 during Lent, .•. l suppose the idea of

fasting is that one shou ld eat on 1.' enough to sustain

life."{GB, 138) (The character of wilf seems to comment on

the extr~vagance of Catholiclsm, in relation to Anglic~nism. In other words, the unconformity of Catholicism in a society where Anglicanism is the norm. It is interesting to note that Ad3.m is an ex Roman catholic priest.) Ada-il' s attitude towards food is also described as superior, fussy, and verging on obsension. He spent "his days eating - tasting, sampling, cri1.icizing (especially criticizing), weighing in the balance and aIl too often finding wanting."(AFGL, 15) He is described as the "picture of health, fat and sleek as a weIl-living n~utered cat." (AFGL, 14) The choice of the word "neutered" to qualify Adam suggests that overfeeding has smothered his liridinaus impulses, or that food has come ta compensate for 8exual urges he can't corne to terms with. Tom Dagnall, th~ rectar 98

remarks that "his knowledge and appreciation of gourmet

eating seemed inappropriate and made [him] feel ill at

ease. "(AFGL, 29)

The charact~rs of Adam and Wilf belong to a

longstanding tradition in England of stigmatising male

knowledge of food. Frances Burney wrote comedies of manner

in the eighteenth century, and as the following excerpt from

her first novel shows, was equally concerned with food and

its social meanings as Pym. Furthermore she appears to view

masculine knowledge of food prpparation as unsuitable:

After this, the conversation turned wholly

upon eating, a subject which was discussed

with the utmos~ delight; and, had l not known

they were men of rank and fashion, l should

have imagined that Lord Merton, Mr Lovel, and

Mr Coverley, had aIl been professed cooks;

for they displayed 50 much knowledge of

sauces and made dishes, and of various

methods of dressing the same things, that l

am persuaded they must have given much Lme,

and much study, to make themselves such

adepts in this art. It would be very

difficult to determine, whether they were

most to be distinguished as qluttons, or

epicuresi for they were, at once, dainty and ...... voracious, understood the right and the wrong 99

of every dish, and alike emptied the one and

the other.(Burney, 1989: 288)

This passage demonstrates the impropriety of thinking and

talking too much about food, as weIl as eating too avidly.

Both these attitudes are signs of lcwer class in Evelina's

eyes, and appear to reflect on thE three men's masculinity

and appropriateness as her suitors. In Pym's fiction, Adam

and Wilf perceive themselves as epicures, while in facto

Adam is a glutton, and Wilf is vulgar and immoderate in his

taste and preparation of food, moreover neither is very

virile.

Although, as Charles Burkhart notes, one must be

careful when associating food and sex, (Burkhart,1988: 99)

Bason and Prince seem to transpose their 5?xual impulses, or

desires for intimacy on an obsessive concern with food.

Bason uses food as a way to fulfil his need to nurture. He

needs to feel needed, and constantly searche8 for

confirmation. When he is not justly appreciated, he feels

personally rejected: "1 don't believe any of them noticed

what they were eating .... Eggs in aspic and a dish of

lasagne verde - in compliment to Father Thames' Italian

holiday, you know - but l might just as weIl not have

bothered."(GB, 235) (This resembles, in a perverted and

puerile way, Flora's feelings of rejection when Mr Conne

shuns the biscuits.) And in the case of Adam Prince, desire

b ------... ------~

100 for food has obliterated his libido. Unconsciously, disturbing thoughts haunt him caus~ng insom~ia. He associates this insomnia to stress related ta the changing diet in England: He proceeded to tell Dr G. about the unreasonable fury he felt at seeing a bottle of wine being warmed up ('chambréed') on a storage heater, or being offered vinegary bottled mayonnaise instead of home-made, or sliced bread or processed cheese, or there heing no Dijon mustard available when asked for, or freshly ground coffee, and finally, the use of tea-bags - that seemed to upset him quite unreasonably. (AFGL, 185}

His unreasonable feelings of anger towards tea-bags and bottled mayonnaise are uncannily reminjscent of his irrational feeling of distaste at the sight of Emma and Graham embracing in the grass: "This sight filled him with distaste. One would not have expected this sort of behaviour from Miss Howick ... An upsetting sight in the wocds was how he thought of it as he turned back and went home ta solace himself with a cup of Lapsang." (AFGL, 135) Adam comforts himself with a reassuring cup of tea. This ritual offers him security dnd warmth in a rapidly changing world, sexually as weIl as alimentary wise. 101 Rocky is refreshingly different from Wilf and Adami however, one must beware to fall under his charm. Rocky appears to enjoy cooking, and does in fact the cooking and cleaning at home. In Helena and Rocky's relationship the traditional malejfemale roles have been reversed. Helena comments on Rocky, "he' s always been a good cook." (EW, 9) While Rocky accepts philosophically, if with a touch of

priggishness, his wife 1 s lack of domestic skills: nIt isn' t wise to drop in on Helena and expect to find a meal ready or even anything in the larder. l'm afraid we don't &lways agree about the importance of ci v ilized eating." (EW, 31) Although Helena and Rocky fit their roles weIl, the situation is not altogether comfortable. Society places on Helena the burden of guilt for not being a proper wife. Mildred criticises Helena for not having the time to cook for her husband, "Surely wives shouldn't be too busy for their husbands?" (EW, 10) And her clp.aning lady also remarks: 'And she [Helena] wouldn't do it even if she was here,' said Mrs Morris emphatically. 'He's always the one to do things in the house. The next thing i5 we'll have the vicar washing up. Just wait till he's married and you'll soon see.' (EW, 156) ,

102 Rocky, &ware of his wife's feelings of guilt and of the support society ofters him, takes advantage of the situation. He whines: lAt the moment l have to do aIl the cooking

and washing up. l'm worn out. 1 1 'WeIl, you're not in the Admiral's villa now, and anyway it wonlt be long. l thought you liked cooking, darling,' said Helena in an edgy voice. (EW, 52)

Rocky wants to attract the sympathy of other women, and when Helena leaves him he complains to Mildred: "She couldn' t even wash a lettuce properly .. "(EW, 145) And, "It really needs a woman's hand there dnd Helena isn't really interested. Perhaps l should never have married her."(EW, 129) Although Rocky is not a helpless man in the kitchen, he is offered consolation in the forro of a meal by Mildred, and if she had not indulged him, there would have been others to fill the role. Mildred muses, "And perhaps even a less attractive man thar Rocky would have a devoted woman to prepare a meal for him on the day his wife left him. A muther, a sister, an aunt, even ... "(EW, 145) She implies that aIl men, even those who are capable ûf cooking, can justly expect a woman to nurture and feed them. As the characters of Rocky, wilf and Adam show, there is a significant difference between the attitude of men who 103 cook and that of women. The men who cook usually enjoy food

enormously, consider themselves great cooks, a~d expect recognition. Furthermore, as Mildred observes, "men did not

usually do things unless they liked doing them." (EW, 11) Their relation to food is narcissistic rather than nurturing. Women who cook eat their food with little pleasure, and expect little praise. Their pleasure cornes from preparing food for others, and their praise 1s implicit in the consumption of their food. This explains why the y feel personally rejected when the food they have prepared is not eaten. In Pym's novels, male cooking, like masculine love is usually selfish and self-centered, while fernale cooking, like feminine love is usually generous, self- sacriflcing, and nurturing. Like the stereotype of nurturing women and recipient of nurture men, this is aiso a social construct, a fictionalised norm , and Pym does offer examples of generous masculine love, (Keith in GB is one case) and selfi8h feminine love. Harriet is a very selfish and demanding nurturer. The objects of her attention, such as Basil Branche, are prisoners of her love: "He was like a

tame animal being led away ... "(UA, 166) and "Miss Bede won't

let him out of her sight" (UA, 169) (This aspect of Harriet's personality is made more explicit in UA, rather than STG.) Marcia Ivory's love, as we shall see in the following

section, is also ext~emely self-centered, and the (.. consequences of her obsessive devotion are dramatic • 104 ANOREXIA

Marcia Ivory's self-inflicted starvation in QA is the expression of a form of nurture pushed to the extreme: death. Marcia is an ageing spinster living alone in a big house since her mother's death. She works in an office at an unidentified task, an apparentIy useless one since she is not replaced when she retires. Her life seems rather bland and empty except for one significant episode, a visit to the hospital for an operation, a mastectomy. Marcia had been one of those wornen, encouraged by her mother, who had sworn that she would never let the surgeon's knife touch her body, a woman's body being such a private thing. But of course when it carne to the point there was no question of resistance. (QA, 19)

This excerpt captures the essence of a cheap romantic novel where an innocent, pure woman has been brought up to keep away from men; to protect her virginity, until one day she meets a man she is unahle to resist, and abandons herself to him. Miss Ivory has placed herself in the hands of Mr Strong, "the consul tant surgeon who had perforrned the operation - mastectomy, hysterectomy, appendectomy, 105 j • tonsillectomy - you name it, it was aIl one to him, his cool

competent manner seemec1 to imply." (QA, 19) Mr strong and Marcia Ivory., their respective names hold

obvious connotations, and in Marcia Ivory's case ~dds to the pathetic undertones of her life: romance cornes to her in the form of an operation. From the moment she meets him, Mr strong becomes the center of Marcia's life: "Then she went into the hospital and Mr Strong entered her life and filled

her thoughts. Il (QA, 23) While her colleagues at the office go on holidays, Marcia considers an appointment at the hospital and a visit to see Mr Strong's house as "two holiday

treats. " (QA, 43) She wears "new pink underwear" in the hope that Mr strong will be the doctor to examine her, and she is exceedingly proud of his work, the scar under her breast: a poignant sign of infatuation. After the operation, Marcia develops an eating disorder. She loses her appetite and neglects to cook for herself. Combined with the loss 0f interest in eating is an obsessive urge to hoard food tins and arrange them in methodic order in her cupboards. Marcia loss of interest in food could be reasonably explained by the fact that she has no one to prepare food for: her mother, and Snowy her cat are dead. Moreover, when she retires, her eating problem seems to aggravate. She no longer eats lunch with her co- workers(QA, 94), therefore she completely forgets to eat ,( lunch. Losing her job, sne loses the last reason to take 106 care of herself, and on top of not eating, she does not dye her hair anymore(QA, 99), or take pains to dress. Her starvation, partly induced by indifference, seems also a means to obtain attention, in particular from the doctors at the hospital. She does not appreciate the concern of the social workers who treat her like an old woman. Marcia tolerates with greater ease attention from men than from women. She seems pleased when, invited to lunch by her co-workers, Norman and Bill, the former remarks on her extreme thinness: Marcia, of course, had nothing and made rather a feature of her abstinence, much to the amusement of two young men at the next table .... 'You'll get so that you can't eat if you're

not carefuI, 1 Norman pronounced. 'Anorexia nervosa, they calI it - there was a talk

about it on the radio. 1 'Itls the young girls who get anorexia nervosa,' said Marcia, correcting him from her superior medical knowledge. 'l've never

been a big eater. 1 (QA, 10)

There are two und2rstated ironies in Marcia's statement that anorexia is a young girl's disease. The first one is that l she is, unbeknownst to herself, suffering from anorexia. Her 107 , ... denial that the lack of intere~t in food has any relation to the disease which consists in voluntarily depriving oneself from nutrition, is a symptom of the disease. The deprivation of food occurs at an unconscious level. The second one, that her behaviour is precisely that of a young girl in love, striving for the attention of the object of her love. Not only does she constantly think of Mr Strong, but she often thinks of him in relation to food: "AlI the way home she thought of Mr strong and the kind of meal the surgeon would most likely be having this evening - steak, perhaps, or a nice bit of fish, salmon or halibut, with fresh vegetables

in that garden ... " (QA, 127) And, "She did not feel capable of guessing what kind of an evening party, for she could only think of 'wine and cheese' which seemed altogether unworthy of Mr strong."(QA, 128) Mr strong, as his name suggests, would be worthy of steak. Certainly, there is a strong case to be made in favour of the explanation that links her anorexia to an unconscious des ire of returning to the arms of the doctor that operated on her. She constantly thinks of Mr strony and the hospital: "she .nade herself a cup of tea and put plenty of sugar in it, like the tea at the hospital ..•. It gave Marcia a warm feeling to remember those days .•. "(QA, 117) AIso, throughout the no', el, Marcia seems to be preparing herself for a final reunion with her doctor. Note the dozen new nighties saved 108 for a contingent return to the hospital. And her last thoughts, before she dies, are of him:

Marcia remembered what her mother used to

say, how she would never let the surgeon's

knife touch her body. How ridiculous that

seemed when one considered Mr strong ...

Marcia smiled and the frown left his face and

he seemed to be smiling back at her. (QA, 148)

In a strange way, Marcia connects in her mind the act of not eating to the quality of femininity. She starves herself in preparation for the next meeting with Mr Strong; she ~'ants to be a young girl in the care of Mr Strong.

Marcia is an unusual character in the fictional world of Pym in that she has an eating disorder. In a world where food is the central preoccupation, the lack of food related

~roblems is surprising. It may be that together with SDD, a novel about an older woman's affection for a younger man, QA is an attempt to write novels on subjects tha~ appear to be more interesting to contemporary readers. (Between the years

1963 and 1977, Pym's novels were not published anymore, because they were believed not to be of interest to the modern reader. 12 ) In any case, l consider Qh ta be one of her finest novels, also one of her saddest. The reason for both is the unforgettable character of Marcia, whose rejection of food is a gift of unrequited love. 109 The preparation of food has long been perceived as the exclusive domain of women. Biology, culture and education

have fostered this construct, and ta this day men ~~d women believe that the female sex ho Ids a natural ability for cooking and nurturing. l have doubts to the veracity of this belief, and it appears that Pym did as weIl. Her novels present the wide-ranging acceptance of the belief in the traditional roles of nurturing women and nurtured men; however, she also subverts the stereotype in several ways. Firstly, with the help of her constant irony targeting the men and women who abide by the myth and the society that conveys it, she questions its' worth. Secondly, hy suftusing the act of nurturing with pleasure and strength, she makes

it possible for wome~ to nurture, not because it is their dut y, but because it is their choice. And thirdly, by flaunting marginal behaviour in the face of the norm, she undermines the norm. She writes about men who cook and nurture, and women who do not. Therefore, in the novels of Pym, although the stereotype of woman as nurturer and man as nurtured is accepted as the normal behaviour, most of her characters, whether male or female, do not conform. Their eccentricity and unconventionality are both a source of humour, and a step towards a reevaluation of the accepted norm and of relationships between men and wornen. 110

3. COMMUNION AND EXCLUSION

The ~haring of food is the act in everyday dealings which is the closest to shared intimacy. Sharing what one chooses to put inside one's body with another being, and permitting another person to witness incorporation is to allow that person to enter one's most private sphere, where

idertity i~ extremely fragile. The partaking of food is at its' most powerful, a moment of communion where inside and outside meeti where opposing groups come together and share a meal, an act which symbolises intimacy, or community. Douglas writes, "the meal expresses close friendship."(1972:

66) While in STG, Dr Parnell, reflecting on the stat~ of marrlage, expresses the same idea, in this case tainted with narratorial irony: But surely liking the same things for dinner is one of the deepest and most lasting things you could possibly have in common with anyone, ... After aIl, the emotions of the

heart are very transitory, or 50 l believe; l

should thi~k it makes one much happier ta he well-fed than well-loved.(pTG, 145)

When the irony is put aside, the connection estabJished between food and love becomes the focus of his words. Pym 111 herself once wrote, during the war years of rationing, "Links [her mother] rnanaged to get a 7lb jar of marmalade - such are the joys of going without, Not even love is so passionately longed for."(Holt, 1990: 102) She places food

on ~he same plane as love, both capable of inspiring feelings of passion. Meals are the moments of highest intimacy in Pym's fiction. Ironically, the very act which symbolises intimacy, the act of eating, replaces it by the same way tecause while food is shared, inner space is not. There is no intimacy which l define as reciprocal close knowledge and contact; no sense of community, that is relations between people who share national, social, familial identities, who work in the same environment, or live in the same neighbourhood; no overt sexuality,13 l reca1l only one act of lovemaking,

vaguely alluded to i~ 5DD; and no fu1fi1ling relationships in Pym. Most of the relatianships between the sexes are failed, or repressed, often in marriages where there seems ta be virtually no passion, or intimacy 1eft, if there ever was, just the habit of living together. On her marriage, Jane ref1ects, Mild and kindly looks and spectacles, ... this was what it aIl came to in the end. The passion of those early days, the fragments of Donne and Marvell and Jane's obscure

,f seventeenth-century poets, the objects of her 112 abortive research, all these faded away into mild, kindly looks and spectacles. (JP, 52)

And Catherine ponders on her relationship with Tom: "We're just like ôn old married couple, Catherine thought, a little depressed, for she meant it in the worst sense, where dullness rather than cosiness seemed to be the keynote of the relationship."(LTA, 66) Cosiness would have been the natural result of intimacy, while dullness, "mild, kindly looks and spectacles," emerges from indifference, lack of shared interest and reciprocity. After several years of marriage, Jane and Nicholas still share their meals, but they do not share the same interests, or experiences, and do not perce ive life and everyday events in the same manner. When they ate out for lunch, and Nicholas was served two eggs and more potatoes than his wife, he received the extra food as his due, while Jane questioned the belief that men need more food than women. A'.other example of the lack of intimacy and communication in their relationship is the following: And so they sat down on either side of the fire, two essentially good people, eating thick slices of bread spread with a paste made of 'prawns (and other fish) " Nicholas reading a book about tObacco-growing, and •

113 Jane wondering how she could make up for her tactlessness this evening. (JP, 156)

They are physically separated, "on either side of the fire,"

as weIl as emo~ionally and mentaIIy, because while Jane is concerned with the feelings of other people, Nicholas is thinking about the pleasure of growing his own tobacco. In the above quote, food insinuates itself in the place of intimacy; it fills the void of intimacy. The reason for the absence of satisfactory relationships between men and women may be the lack of reciprocity and shared experiences; the fact that women nurture and men receive the nurture. To quote Maggie Kilgour from her work on metaphors of incorporation, "Like other perceived oppositions, that between man and woman can slide into the basic and rigid terms of eater dnd eaten, which make reciprocity or communion impo~~lble." (1990: 24~) She means that when the roles are polarised and fixed within stereotypes - eater/eaten, nurturer/nurtured, female/male - it is difficult to find the common ground of understanding which would permit reciprocity, and good relationships are usually based on a system of exchange of love, intimacy, sex, financial and emotional support, among other things. Reciprocity is an essential component of the system because when one person always gives, whether it be love, nurture or food, and the same person always receives, there can be no 114 sense of shared experiences, and consequently no feelings of intimacy. David Cheal writes in his anthropological study of "the gift economyil: "Complete failure to reciprocate is rare, and its' incidence is notable only where social ties

are breaking down."(Cheal, 1983: 59) In Pyrr's fiction, there is virtually no reciprocity between the women who are usually the nurturers, the givers, the eaten, and the men who are the nurtured, the recipients, the eaters. Despite the absepce of intimacy and sexuality per se,

there is a great amount of sensuality, jus~ waiting to be uncovered, in the giving of food by women. The question that begs to be asked is why women give food, rather than attempt to attain intimacy, which is obviously the desired end. Perhaps the women in Pym are afraid to offer themselves sexually to men, afraid of rejection, (it has been suggested that Pym wrote her own failed love affairs into her novels in an effort to distance herself from the pain,14) but also afraid, because of their education, to act in an improper manner by making the advances. When Belinda suspects that Agatha had in fact proposed to the Archdeacon, rather than the presumed contrary, she loses her feelings of inferiority towards Agatha to the point where she can indu Ige in pitY and even sympathy for her. Beljnda considers Agatha's gesture unsuitable and humiliating for a woman. Another reason is that the women may simply not desire intimacy with the men because these are not sexually 115 desirable in Pym. Moreover, they know the domestic burden they will have to shoulder once married, and may prefer to retain their independence. Understandably, they may fear losing their identity in a relationship where they will be expected to sacrifice their desires and interests to nurture and assist their husband in his choices and ambitions. Therefore they choose to give food rather than share their bodies; their meals instead of their lives. There are exceptions, like Mildred and Jessie who in full knowledge of the burden they take upon themselves, ch00se to marry regardlessi however, the nagging doubt persists about whether their marriages will result in intimate and reciprocal relations, or simply fall into the pattern of nurturing women and recipient men. Food is seen to replace intimacy, but is it an adequate replacement? Are the characters in Pym's fiction satisfied with food, and do they achieve a form of communion, that is a sense of intimacy or community through the sharing of food? More often than not, due ta the lack of understanding between persons, in particular men and women, but also between social groups, communion is not attained. "In novel after novel, pym's men fail her women because they lack stature, are unable ta break out of their self-involvement or illusions of masculine importance in order to provide a basis for love or understanding."(Long, 1986: 215) And Pym's women fail her men because they promote the myth of men 116 needing them, and indulge in the act of nurturing men. Food is a at once the promise and the destruction of intimacy.

A case in point: Marcia tries to achieve communion with her surgeon through starvation. She believes that by depriving herself of nutrition, she will attract the attention of Mr Strong. She does attract h1s medical attention; however, her asceticism causes her to die without ever havlng reached intimacy with her doc~Jr. He does not even suspect her intentions, and tragically can not prevent her death. The scene where Marcia stands in front of Mr strong's house, daydreaming about him while he is inside, the host of a party, and completely unaware of her presence, exemplifies the pathos of the situation, and is an extreme instance of the obliviousness of men.

The characters in Pym usually have a keener sense of isolation than of communion. They perceive themselves as separate rather than as part of a community, and this feeling of separateness is expressed in the language of food, assuming the form of exclusion or abjection: "As is typical ot definitions of social bodies, the difference between two groups - those who are inside and those who are outside - is defined by what or how they eat."(Kilgour,

1990: 80) Kilgour's use of the words inside and outside refers both to inside/outside in ~~rms of social groups, me and thû other, and to the intericr of one's body, the objects one chooses to incorporate, and those one rejects, 117 my body and the outside world (whether food or persons). According to her, this opposition is also "the foundation of a cruel system of values in which what is "outside" the territory of the self is bad, and what is "inside" is

good ... " (Kilgour, 1990, 4) In this study we have seen how

food is used to define the identity of a socia~ group, to differentiate one group from another, to hierarchise them, and to reject other groups. The rejection of others, because they do not share the same diet, serves to confirm identity, both individual and social. Therefore the food we eat is directly related to our sense of identity, self-esteem and morality. We associate the food we choose to eat with goodness, and by extension our identity with goodness, and the food we reject, and those who eat it with badness. The distinction is arbitrary and "cruel," but necessary for the preservation of identity. There are several forms of rejection, which are either uersonally motivated, where one chooses to withdraw from a

social group, or socially motivated where one jg kicked out. Various degrees of violence, or violent sentiment, are involved depending on the threat posed to identity: the greater the threat. the greater the need to exclude, and the greater the violence. The first form of rejection, or exclusion l shall discuss is personally motivated by the desire to retain the familiar environment, rather than by the need to pro~~ct identity from the impending threat of 118 difference, the outside in Kilgour's terms. QA is a novel of exclusion. The four central characters, Marcia, Letty, Norman and Edwin are alone, and with the possible exception of Letty, do not attempt to establish intimacy. They go through life encountering people on a superficial level, impeding them to penetrate within because they pre fer the safety of the life they know, and have become accustomed ta, instead of the unknown, threatening adventure of human relations. Philip Larkin refers to this aloneness in a letter to Pym as "the pathos of half-relations."(Holt, 1990: 248) When sharing a tin of nescafé like Marcia and Norman, and offering jelly beans to colleagues like Edwin, are the high moments of contact with people, these become symbols of "half-relations." l have shown that Marcia excludes herself from social relations in view of a higher form of communion, an extremely romantic one, and certainly an unrealistic one, and how she believes that deprivation of food will bring her closer to the desired goal of intirnacy. When she is invited for lunch by her male co-workers, she barely eats, leaving her salad, refusing repeatedly wine, bread and even desert. She also eats very little when she is invited for Christmas dinner by her neighbours, and by doing so causes offense to her host: Nor did Marcia really do justice ta the traditional Christmas fare. The discovery 119 that she didn't drink had cast the first slight gloom on the proceedings and the hope that she would eat weIl was disappointed by the way she left most of her small helping on the side of the plate. She murmured something about being a very small eater but priscilla thought she might at least have had the manners to make a show of eating when so mu ch trouble had been taken. (QA, 72)

The rule implied in the above excerpt concerns the host/guest relation of reciprocity, that is while the ho st must prepare a special meal, the guest must do honor to the meal: eat weIl and express gratitude. Marcia does neither and offends her hosto This excerpt brings to mlnd Theo Grote's refusaI to eat anything at tea in STG. Harriet whom we know as a nurturer of young clergymen perceives this abstinence as ill mannered and consequently finds him less attractive: Downstairs Harriet had just made the discovery that Bishop Grote never ate anything for his tea. Now this was exceedingly awkward, for how can any real contact be established between two persons when one is eating and the other merely ( 120 watching? For sorne minutes Harri ,t did not

know what to do. (STG, 193)

Harriet recognises the impossibility of intimacy being attained because they belong on two different sldes: one who eats and the other not. The situation is uncomfortable because Grote, as Marcia, does not abide to the rule of reciprocity between ho st and guest. Harriet further reflects, "how extremely irritating this not eating was. It was impolite, too, most impolite."(STG, 194) Grote's rejection of food implies a rejection of Harriet; an exclusion from her company. Furthermore, his abstinence acts as a foil to Harriet's gluttony. Marcia's refusaI to eat is also perceived as rejection, of the community (group, neighbour, family), who has attempted to include her in their traditional Christmas celebration. She rejects them doubly: first by not eating, and then by not adhering to the rule of reciprocity. Marcia and Theo's abstinences are interpreted as ill-mannered, asocial and disturbing because they go against protocol, and threaten social identity. As l have previously discussed, Letty, who cowers from accepting an invitation to eat with her Nigerian neighbours, the Olatunde's, excludes herself from their company, perceived in terms of food as so very different from herSe In other words, she rejects their spicy and garlicky food because it symbolises their different national1ties and , 121 \ social groups. Ironically, she cornes to regret her refusaI to share the Olatunde's food when sharing her meal with the \ery English Mrs Pope: '1 have sorne ham and a Christmas pudding, one l made last year, so it will be best if we have our meal together,' said Mrs Pope. 'It is ridiculous to think of two women in the same house eating separate Christmas

dinners. '(QA, 75)

Letty and Mrs Pope eat together but do not connect, and Letty reflects that "a jolly Nigerian Christmas would surely

have included her ... "(QA, 75) According to her, the Olatunde's would have "included her" in their group, while Mrs Pope shares her meal only because she considers their eating separate Christmas dinners in the same house as ridiculous. The prospect of the shared meal promises no warmth or communion, and Letty refers to the act of sharing as "pooling resources." Moreover, we learn that Mrs Pope

complains throughout the dinner ~bout "the excessive amount

of food most people [eat]." (QA, 75) She proudly affirms that she does not make a difference about the food she eats even at Christmas. Her ascetical behaviour, as Marcia's, goes against the spirit of Christmas, an occasion which entails the consumption of excessive and festive foods, as weIl as ( the sharing of these foods. 122 The two men, Norman and Edwin both spend Christmas with family, and although they find themselves within a community, there is no sign of communion either. Norman is more interested ln the free food and warm house than in the company. He shows no sign of envy for his brother-in-law's new found companionship: " .•• hearing the sound of laughter, but he wasn't really envious, his attitude being 'sooner him than me. '''(QA, 77) Norman is used to living alone, caring alone for himself, and no longer feels the need for human contact. He excludes himself from community because it is simpler than involving himself. Edwin, who would have preferred to spend Christmas alone, is even relieved to come back to his house after a dutiful visit to his daughter and her family: They'd wanted him to stay longer, of course, but he'd pleaded various pressing engagements for, after Christmas day, with a somewhat Inadequate 'Family Communion' as the main service (no High Mass), and Boxing Day with a surfeit of cold turkey and fractious children, he felt he'd had enough.(QA, 77)

His attitude towards his famiIy, reflected by the use of the following expressions: "~Inadequate 'Family communion'," "cold turkey," and "fractious children," appears selfish and ungrateful. He criticises the religious service, the food he 123 was served, and the children, presumably his own granàchildren. He lies, or exaggerates his engagements to be

able to leave as soon dS possible. In fact, he prefers to go about his quiet, organised, and undisrupted life, rather than to partake in familial communion. Edwin, like the other three characters in QA, fails to respect the traditional and

original meaning of Christmas, as a tirne for celebration, expenditure, abundance, gift-exchange, hospitality, solidarity, cornmunity, which is defined, like the meal, as much by an obligation to receive as by an obligation to give. In an article on The winter's Tale, Michael Bristol discusses Christmas as a season of expenditure, and he situates the origin of the custorn of gltt-exchange at Christmas in the birth of Chri&t, God's gift to mankind. 15 Christmas is an occasion to celebrate and unite with friends and family, share food and warm feelings, but in this novel it exemplifies the isolation and sterility of the characters. An isolation which they have corne to regard as tt.eir own, and which is jealously protected from foreign invasion, becùuse it is easier and less threatening to keep within their familiar environment, their narrow and selfish lives. Marcia, Letty, Norman, and Edwin exemplify voluntary exclusion from community, and intirnacy. There exists another forrn of exclusion which is not voluntary, and entails greater anguish and dejection. If QA is a novel of 124

~xclusion, SDD is one of rejection. Leonora, the central character fe~ls the pain of growing old and being alone to a greater degree than any of the four central characters in

QA, because she does not choose her predicament. A beautiful, elegant wornan, Leonora has, up to the moment we meet her never felt the lack of company and solicitous attentions from men; however, as the novel progresses, her aloneness becomes more and more a~parent, especially as the two suitors who compete for her dttentions, Humphrey and

James, slowly drift away.

Leonora's '~wnfall - James and Humphrey's rejection combined with her own realisation that she is growing old and becoming less attractive to men - is represented through images of food. The chestnut cake marks the first step down.

After a painful visit at the dentist, Leonora looks forward to the comfort of her favorite cake. Her expectation is frustrated when she realises that the very last piece of chestnut cake has been taken by someone at a neighboring table where, unbeknownst to Leonora, is James' secret girlfriend, Phoebe. Leonora glares, and her puerile reaction strikes the attention of a man 3itting alone at a nearby table: "Now what have l seen? he asked himself. Something or nothing? A beautiful woman disappointed over a cake, a mere triviality, really, and yet who could telL .. "(8DD, 82)

Typical of Pym's irony, the external observer, this time uncharë-::teristically a man, is more aware of the situation 125 than the protagonists. Leonora is aware neither of the

presence of James' girlf] ~end in the restaurant, nor of her existence at this point. While Phoebe does not suspect that next to her is the Miss Eyre who has in her possession James' fruitwood mirror, an object both women covet. The solitary observer also points out to the reader the triviality of caring so much about food, while acknowledging the possibility of hidden meaning beneath the food, a theme which we may now begin to notice the emergence in the novels of Pym. This theme is based on a paradox, because while over concern with food is presented as trivial, Pym celebrates a world of ordinary, trivial things. l believe Catherine was echoing Pym's own thoughts when she said, The small things of lite were often so much higger than the great things, she decided, wondering how many writers and philosophers had sajd this before her, the trivial pleasures like cooking, one's home, little poems especially sad ones, solitary waIks, funny things seen and overheard.(LA, 101)

Furtherrnore, underneath Leonora's petty disappointment at not having her favourite cake, lies the greater pain and fear of growing decrepit, old and alone. The second step of Leonora's downfall, which l have called "the abruptness of sea-food,"(Barthes, 1957: 78)

. 126 occurs when Humphrey announces that James has a secret mistress: "A shrimp fell on the tablecloth, but perhaps it would have fallen anyway."(SOD, 92) The clumsy gesture, uncharacteristic of Leonora, reveals her hurt and surprise, and the following words betray pathetically her pain: "'How messily one eats,' said Leonora calmly. 'Is it a sign of age, or what? Shall l try to get the mayonnaise up with my knife. "' (SOO, 92) The falling of the shrimp represents a blow to Leonora's youth and desirability, and the fact that James has a mistress is, to her eyes, the proof. Finally, when Leonora offers Humphrey James' favorite meal, it dawns on her that she has become too dependent on James. Her fall is now complete. James has abandoned her first for Phoebe, then for Ned, while Humphrey is losing interest in her, and is beginning to see her as an elderly woman to be protected rather than a desirable woman to be seduced. The full portent of her error comes to her while serving Humphrey dessert: It was not until she offered the latter and Humphrey refused it that she remembered that he hated anything chocolate. It was James who

loved chocolate mousse. (SOO, 151)

And, In the larder misery came over her. She leaned against the edge of a shelf, her 127 1, forehead resting on the tins - prawns and lobster, asparagus tips, white peaches - that she always kept in case James should calI unexpectedly for a meal.(SDD, 151)

These two quotations show Leonora's emotional dependence on James. He is always on her mind, and his favourite food is always in her larder in the hope of a visit from him. The following scene in the self-service place, diametrically opposed to Leonora's lifestyle, exemplifies her downfall: To make things worse, she now crashed down a heavy trayon Leonora's table on which were piled not only dirty cups, saucers and plates but aIl kinds of food scraps - sandwich crusts, bits of lettuce and tomato, the remains of cream cakes and even squashed-out cigarette ends - it was really too disgusting.(SDD, 166)

Instead of descriptions of elegant and appetising meals like those offered when Leonora dined with Humphrey and James, we are given scraps of unattractive foods, other clients rejects. Leonora identifies to the picture, and recognises its' implications: "even the cast-off crusts, the ruined ( cream cakes and the cigarette ends had their 128 significance." (SDD, 166) These discarded foods remind her of her own rejection by James, and to a certain extent by Humphrey as weIl. She literally feels like a "cast-off crust," a "ruined c:ream cake." Leonora is rejected simply because she is no longer desired, or desirable, but the act of abjection, as defined by Julia Kristeva, goes a step further than mere rejection whether voluntary or not, because it suggests gut-wrenching violence. Abjection is the act of excluding somethingjsomeone in order tJ preserve one's identity, to avoid annihilation. An intricate part of the structure and order of the language of food, it defines boundaries, confirms identity, and by doing that, violently rejects difference, unconformity, unusualness: "Ce n'est pas l'absence de propreté ou de santé qui rend abject, mais ce qui perturbe une identité, un système, un ordre. Ce qui ne respecte pas les limites, les places, les règles."(Kristeva, 1980: 12) This definition also suits exclusion; however, the understated feeling of urgency and the drastic quality of the act of abjection make the distinction clear. Abjection is uncontrollable and final. The disgust felt towards certain foods is possibly the primary form of abjection, the most intimate, intense and physical one. Kristeva's description of the feeling is powerfully evocative: 129

Lorsque cette peau à la surface du lait, inoffensive, mince comme une feuille de

papier à cigarettes, minable comme une rognure d'ongles, se présente aux yeux, ou touche les lèvres, un spasme de la glotte et plus bas encore, de l'estomac, du ventre, de tous les viscères, crispe le corps, presse les larmes et la bile, fait battre le coeur, perler le front et les mains. (Kristeva, 1980:

10)

When Miss prior found the caterpillar in the cauliflower, she may have experienced a similar sensation: an

overwhelming r~pugnance she could not control. She could not eat the meal, certainly partly because of the disgust but more particularly because of the degradation eating it would have signified for her. Miss Prior's sense of identity is proven firm in her gesture of abjection. Belinda reflects on her reaction to such an unpleasant occurrence and cornes to a startling conclusion: "If this had happened to her in somebody else's house she would have pretended she hadn't seen it and gone on eating. It might have required courage, but she would have done i t." (STG, 49) Her honesty is verified since she eats Edith's beans laced with cigarette ash. Belinda's social position needs no reinforcing, no confirmation in food. Her sense of breeding enables her to

• 130 transcend the materiality of what she eats. On the other hand, Miss Prior's position is precarious and more loosely defined - she moves between Belinda her employer and Emily the maid - therefore, she rejects the food and offends her employer who also plays the raIe of hast in this situation. She "abj ects" the meal she is served in order ta preserve her position, and her identity: liA la lisière de l'inexistence et de l'hallucination, d'une réalité qui, si je la reconnais, m'annihile. L'abject et l'abjection sont là mes garde-fous. Amorces de ma culture."(Kristeva, 1980: 10) Abjection saves Miss Prior from losing her identity, which Kristeva associates to losing the mind, going insane. Kristeva also makes the point that abjection is the beginningjbait ("amorces") of culture. without abjection, culture would lose its' origin and identity as weIl. Examples of exclusion and abjection are found with greater ease than examples of communion in Pym, because food replaces love and intimacy more easily than it symbolises it. Sorne of the possible reasons for food replacing intimacy are that it is easier to discuss food rather than sex, and that Pym describes a world where one of its' characteristics is that there is very little intimacy. People live and interact without really communicating. Although this breakdown in communications is more apparent in the later novels, Qh and SDO, signs ot lt are present in aIl of Pym's novels. Social boundaries do not collapse because each class 131 fears losing its' identity. Men and women do not understand each other because their experiences are so different. Therefore intirnacy, whether between men and women or between the social classes, is attained with difficulty. Kilgour writes that "While food can be an image for exchange, it is also a symbol of choice, and the division of experience into

eitherjor experiences,"(Kilgour, 1990: 246) and in Pym's novels food becomes a symbol of the division retween classes and sexes. This seems ta point towards a world where food replaces love, and where people try to believe that food is more satisfying than love. But does anyone actually believe that "it makes one much happier to be well-fed than well- loved?" (STG, 145) If, as Barthes suggests, aIl novels can be categorised following their openness to alimentary allusions, Pym finds a place among the most candid and explicit: Avec Proust, Zola, Flaubert, on sait toujours ce que mangent les personnages; avec Fromentin, Laclos ou même Stendhal, non. Le détail alimentaire excède la signification, il est le supplément énigmatique du sens (de l'idéologie.) (Barthes, 1971: 129) l know of no other author who is so acutely aware of the possibilities of meaning food offers as, and how revealing it is of character, class, sex, culture, education. Not only 132 are we given what the characters eat in detail, we are offered what it means to them, and what it means or fails to mean to those with whom they interact. In this thesis, l have endeavored to present how through her extensive use of food, Pym writes a language of food, that is a system of communication with a structure and set of rules. This language functions on three levels: a social level where hierarchies and boundaries are defined, and social identity is confirrned or rejected; a sexual level where the sexes are defined and distinguished following codes of behaviour; and finally a personal level where one can choose to allow others to penetrate one's private sphere, or withdraw from communion, communication, and intimacy. AIso, throuqh her use of food and irony, Pym questions social and sexual codes of behaviour, while pointing out the relativism of moral and social values. Consequently, the language of food oscillates between the expression of a norm and the rejection of this same norme In the section on sexuality and food, we witnessed the subversion of the accepted norm of the woman as nurturer, and the man as recipient of nurture. Most of Pym's characters do not conform to the stereotype. They are wom~n who do not cook, can not cook, and could not. care less, or men who do cook and nurture. And when the characters adhere to the stereotype, Pym's strategies of irony subvert the mythe Even more powerfully subversive, Pym imbues the · 133 t traditional female nurturing with strength and the masculine reception with weakness. pym did not expect radical change, nor did she strive for iti however, she wanted the recognition of the artificiality of the social assumptions of masculinity and femininity. Regarding social roles, Pym appears somewhat more ambiguous in her loyalties. She was sharply aware of the arbitrariness of class division, nevertheless she carried the signs of her middle class education throughout her writings. In her fiction, she is critical of both low, middle, and high class pretensions. She implies that from whatever class one cornes from, signs of belonging will perspire. Occasionally, she emphasises the absurdity of certain class codes of behaviour, but generally she simply observes and states with a slight ironie inflection directed towards aIl of humankind. Ultimately, Pym contends for a reevaluation of the gender roles, and for greater openness and tolerance of social and sexual difference, and she uses the language of food to promote the goal. This is an example of what Barthes refers to as the ideology supplemented by food: rrLe détail alimentaire •.• est le supplément énigmatique du sens (de l'idéologie. ) " It may disappoint sorne readers to find that Barbara Pym was not the innocuous comic writer who merely depicted a world of small, trivial, everyday things; who wrote 'good •

134 books for a bad day.' certainly she took great care with small details and ordinary events, people and objects, but always against the greater canvas of social reality, codes of behaviour, and disparity between the sexes and the social classes. Moreover, she believed that ordinary everyday things like food, to borrow Visser's words, "embody our mostly unspoken assumptions, and they both order our culture and determine its direction."(1986: 11-2) Food is at the center of Pym's fiction, and of her character's lives. It is the symbol of life, love, intimacy, but because food replaces love and intimacy in Pym, it also becomes the symbol of aloneness. As a language, food is bath the symbol of communication and the absence of communication. The presence of food in Pym's novels can be

read as the expression of the sadnes~ and emptiness of the characters' lives, or as the more positive sign of ordinary people who have made the best of their lives in a restrictive environment, and have learned to appreciate the small pleasures of life. l think aIl these meanings are intricately woven in pym's fiction, the sadness with the joy; the irony with the comedy; the desire for intimacy and community with the absence of communion; the food with sex ... Nonetheless, because of the overwhelming presence of food, the absence of communion is conspicuous. The only 135 occasion where l noted a fleeting sense of community was in Christianity:

The church had been b~dly bombed and only one aisle could be used, so that it always appeared to be very full with what would normally have been an average congregation crowded into the undamaged isle. This gave us a feeling of intimacy with each other and separateness from the rest of the world, so that l always thought of us as being rather like the early Christians, surrounded not by lions, admittedly, but by aIl the traffic and bustle of a weekday lunch-hour.(EW, 48)

And, two pages later: The preacher was forceful and interesting. His words seemed to knit us together, so that we really were like the early Christians, having aIl things in common.(EW, 50)

But even in this case, the communion is just a passing illusion. Mildred, whose words l have twice quoted above, knows that she is experiencing a temporary feeling of community, not real communion, and that she will inevitably return to the traffic and bustle and alienation of city life. Pym's fiction depicts a world where the comedy is a 136 foil to the intrinsic loneliness of people in a world where social ties are disintegrating, and where the disappointment that "life was like that for rnost of us - the srnall unpleasantness rather than the great tragedies; the little useless longings rather than the great renunciations and dramatic love affairs,"(EW, 96) that is to say the safeness of food rather than the threat of intimacy, rules together with the virtues of acceptance and endurance. 137 NOTES 1. Holt, a long time friend of Pym, is her literary executer, and the author of her biography, A Lot to Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym, London: Macmillan, 1990. 2. It is interesting ta note that Douglas has contributed on several occasions to Africa during the time Pym was working for the Journal. Pym most probably came into direct contact with her work, in particular the following articles: "AnimaIs in LeIe Religious symbolism," Africa 27 (1957): 46- 57, "Raff ia cloth Distribution in the LeIe Economy," Africa 28 (1958): 109-122, "Matriliny and Pawnship in Central Africa," Africa 34 (1964): 301-313, and "Dogon Culture - Profane and Arcane," Africa 38 (1968): 16-23. 3. In an interesting article entitled "The Semiotics of Food in the Bible," Jean Soler cornes to similar conclusions. Food and Drink in History, Selections from the Annales: Economie, Sociétés, civilisations 5, Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 1979: 126-138. 4. In the article "Taking the Biscuit: the Structure of British Meals," Douglas and Michael Nicod, while studying the structure of the British meal, strongly suggest that food is a way to define your national identity. 5. Stephanie Meunier, a friend and fellow student who is also working on a study of Barbara Pym, has brought this to my attention. 6. Shofield and Saar are the editors of the biannual Barbara Pym Newsletter. 7. Shofield has also recently edited a compilation of articles on food ip fiction, Cooking by the Book: Food in Li terature and Cul ;, .. re, which includes among others the "tour de force" by Leonardi, "Recipes for Reading," as weIl as a contribution uf her own, "Spinster's Fare: Rites of Passage in Ani ta Brookner' s Fiction." 8. See Julia Twigg for more detail on the hierarchy of foods, in an interesting study on vegetarianism, "Vegetarianism and the Meanings of Meat, If in Anne Murcott' s The Sociology of Food and Eating: Essays on the Sociological Significance of Food, Hants: Gower, 1983: .8-30. 9. For more information on "The Nursery Food Syndrome," consult Stephen Mennel's AlI Manners of Food: Eating and [ Taste in England and France from the Middle Ages to the Present, Oxford: Blackwell, 1985: 295-300. 138 10. I am indebted to S.Meunier for this interpretation. 11. See "Appendix B: Sex Differences in Death, Disease and Diet," in The Question of Sex Differences, for information concerning a masculine preference for protein, and a feminine preference for carbohydrates. Hoyenga K.B. and Hoyenga K.T., (1979) The Question of Sex Differences: Psychological. Cultural and Bioloqical Issues, Boston: Li ttle, Brown. 12. "The Pleasures of Poverty" by Barbara Everett is an essay on Pym' s € ~ .... .lC publishing history, the problematic nature of her novels, and the writer's persona. Independent Women, ed. Janice Rossen, New York: st Martin's and Sussex: Harvester: 9-20. 13. Jane Nardin briefly mentions the possible correlation between the absence of sex and the presence of food in her critical work, Barbara Pym, Boston: Twayne, 1985: 20. 14. See Anne M.Wyatt-Brown's article, "Ellipsis, Eccentricities and Evasion in the Diaries of Barbara Pym," Independent Women, ed. Janice Rossen, New York: st Martin's, Sussex: Harvester, 1988: 21-49. 15. Br istol, Michael D., "In Search of the Bear: Spatiotemporal Form and the Heterogeneity of Economies in The Winter' s Tale," Shakespeare Quarterly, summer 1991, forthcoming. ~~------

139

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Ukers, william H, (1936) The Romance of Tea, New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 147 Visser, Margaret, (1986) Much Depends on Dinner, Toronto: McClelland and stewart. Woolf, Virginia, (1989) A Room of One's Own, 1929, London: Graf ton. (1988) The Waves, 1931, London: Graf ton. Wyatt-Brown, Anne M., (1988) "Ellipsis, Eccentricities and Evasion in the Diaries of Barbara Pym," Independent Women: The Function of Gender in the Novels of Barbara Pym, ed. Janice Rossen, New York: st Martin's and

Sussex: Harvester: ~1-49.

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