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'Si bien non comedes, conde': Food Rituals, Alimentary Imagery, and the Count of Barcelona's Comic Feast in the "Cantar de mio Cid"

2013; College of Letters and Science of the University of California Santa Barbara; Issue: 25 Linguagem: Inglês

1540-5877

Jonathan Burgoyne,

Early Modern Spanish Literature

espanolUna de las primeras responsabilidades del Cid es la alimentacion de los suyos, pero el comer se retrata raras veces en el de mio El ensayo se divide en dos artes; la primera estudia tres episodios que representan rituales de comida e imagineria alimenticia como gestos orales de sumision a la dinamica de poder que reproduce cada banquete. Ademas, los discursos de dominacion y sumision en estas comidas, tanto figurativas como reales, tambien tienen resonancia con las jerarquias sociales que estructuran todo el poema. La segunda parte interpreta la lucha con el Conde de Barcelona y el arte comico y carnavalesco del poeta, empezando con la batalla en el pinar, la comida forzada y la salida final del conde en la conclusion del primer cantar. El ensayo argumenta que el humor del poeta del Cid desplaza los discursos masculinos y militarizados de la conquista y la derrota, y combinado con la parodia, reveses comicos y alusiones biblicas sirve para humillar al conde y crear el festin jocoso que reafirma al Cid como principe ideal y heroe epico. EnglishOne of the Cid’s first responsibilities is to provide food for his men, yet the actual act of eating is rarely portrayed in the Cantar de mio Cid. This essay is divided into two sections; the first examines three scenes that represent food rituals and alimentary imagery as oral gestures of submission to a power dynamic that is recast in each meal. The discourses of dominance and submission that order these feasts, figurative and real, also resonate with the social hierarchies that structure the entire poem. The second section unpacks the clash with the Count of Barcelona, and the poet’s carnivalesque comic technique beginning with the battle in the pine forest, to the Count’s forced feeding and final departure at the end of the first cantar.The essay concludes that the Cid-poet’s humor redeploys the masculine and militarized discourses of conquest and defeat, combined with parody, comic reversals, and biblical allusion to humiliate the Count character and create a comic feast that reaffirms the Cid’s status as ideal prince and epic hero.