체홉의 작품에서 음식과 욕망

Abstract

There are only a few things that attract our attention as much as food in popular culture. Food is consumed under a desire which has been exaggerated more than the basic needs of eating and drinking. It is one of the inevitable elements in literature as it delivers personality, mood, and human status. In understanding people who have been brought up in different cultures or environments, food and food culture are important. This study speculates on the relationship between the socialization of individuals and food, and society itself and food. Socialization is a process which internalizes social values and culture. That is, socialization includes two supplementary processes, that is, transmission of social and cultural heritage, and formation of personality. Human socialization is derived from eating behaviors. Eating behavior is more than simply satisfying basic biological needs. Food intake is an important behavior which is culturally framed and socially decided. As eating is a human activity that includes social, psychological, and physiological levels eating in literature can be changed into a narrative symbol which has diverse symbolic functions in a wider cultural context as well as in daily living and literary works. Food is a subject of desire for the heroes of Chekhov's novels. Chekhov's heroes eat very well and very much. Food sometimes leads to an eating behavior, that is uncommon or informal. Such acts are often derived from the desire of resolving hunger or being differentiated from others. Chekhov intended to symbolically show the close relationship between the heroes through the stories where they remember and recollect food they ate in the past. When they share food, their relationship becomes closer. As seen, the food Chekhov described is not specially exotic. His novels describe food in detail and show a close or unnatural feeling the heroes experience. Food has a higher value in addition to getting rid of hunger. It is culture itself, living and ideology. For Chekhov, memories of taste that he shared with his family in childhood are stored in his memories. The taste of food he ate as a child reminds him of the feelings he had when he shared it with his family. At this time, the memories he is reminded of are reflected by the taste of food he is experiencing in the present. Food in Chekhov's novels were the subject of desire. So, food has instrumental and exchangeable values. It repeats extinction and creation through eternal regression. It seems that life styles including food in his texts are placed in the middle between the subject and object.