De la gastro-critique littéraire féministe: 'Aie le courage de te servir de ta propre nausée'

This article considers French literature as a counter-discourse to the idealisation of French gastronomy for its own sake. This postulate is first supported by a theoretical argument, the literary double topology. This notion considers the way in which literature stages the conventional and normative dimensions of a meal and how literature formulates specifically historical critiques of these same normative dimensions. The article then focuses on a specific element, the feeling of female nausea, in Molière, Flaubert and Duras. Over and above the historical differences and the generic and stylistic differences, nausea bears witness to a form of revolt by women. Meals turn problematic and become the stage for a new awareness of femininity.