Nourritures et métamorphoses ontiques dans Le Roi des Aulnes et Gaspard, Melchior et Balthazar de Michel Tournier
Nourritures et métamorphoses ontiques dans Le Roi des Aulnes et Gaspard, Melchior et Balthazar de Michel Tournier

Summary/Abstract: Our article aims to analyze the symbolism of meals and food, as well as the act of eating in two novels written by Michel Tournier, based on the instruments of myth analysis and criticism. A type of literature deeply anchored in mythology, the Tournierien prose abounds in archetypal images and archaic symbols. In the mythical and mystical register, heroes become what they eat. Food creates a powerful bound between the character and the dimension it generates, triggering dramatic changes at an ontological level. Our approach takes into account the dynamic change that is specific to the profane registry and the installation of Taor de Mangalore and Abel Tiffauges in an authentic, augural, sacred position, which allows them to acknowledge their ontic potential, which had been tragically forgotten and ignored. We witness two cases of ontological metamorphosis, paradoxically generated by food, seemingly coarse matter, opaque, and without any transcendental opening. The inhuman hunger and oversized gastronomic desires of the two characters actually hide the nostalgia for the abundance and plenitude of the sacred beginnings, capable of appeasing the harshest hunger.

• Details
• Contents