King Invites : Performing Power at a Courtly Dining Table.
Title:
King Invites : Performing Power at a Courtly Dining Table.
Author:
De Vooght, Danielle.
ISBN:
9783035261554
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (290 pages)
Series:
L'Europe alimentaire / European Food Issues/ Europa alimentaria / L'Europa alimentare ; v.2
L'Europe alimentaire / European Food Issues/ Europa alimentaria / L'Europa alimentare
Contents:
Contents -- Acknowledgments 11 -- Introduction 13 -- PART I. THINKING ABOUT THE EATING HABITS OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY ROYALS -- CHAPTER 1. Demarcating Power 37 -- The Power of Relationships 37 -- The Power of Food 43 -- Studying Court Food 52 -- Demarcating Power 55 -- CHAPTER 2. Methodological Aspects 59 -- Looking for Relationships: Social Network Analysis 59 -- The Food on the Table: Analyzing Menus 67 -- CHAPTER 3. Setting the Stage 77 -- Belgian Monarchy in the Nineteenth Century 77 -- Belgian Ruling Classes of the Nineteenth Century 83 -- Elite Food in the Nineteenth Century 88 -- PART II. THE KING INVITES -- CHAPTER 4. Dining at the Belgian Court 103 -- A Place of (in)Frequent Gathering 105 -- A Venue of Opportunity 115 -- CHAPTER 5. Dinner Guests of the Kings of the Belgians 123 -- Functionaries Accompany Old Nobility at King Leopold I's Dining Table (1831-1865) 123 -- Diversification at Leopold II's Dining Table (1865-1909) 137 -- CHAPTER 6. Display at the Dining Table 151 -- The Court's Food in Numbers 151 -- Court Food: a Daily Display of Splendor? 158 -- The Food on the Table 176 -- Typical Nineteenth-Century Cuisine 186 -- CHAPTER 7. Culinary Networks of Power? 193 -- Distinction Within the Palace Walls 193 -- Impressing Outside Guests 216 -- Conclusions. Performing Power at a Courtly Dining Table 239 -- Annexes 247 -- Bibliography 253 -- Index 281.
Abstract:
This book was awarded the Joop Witteveenprijs 2012. In the aftermath of the French Revolution, the role of the monarchy in Western Europe was redefined. Together with the absolutist sovereigns, the historian's interest in courts and court life in the nineteenth century seems to have vanished. This book investigates what happened to the institution of the monarchy in the nineteenth century. More specifically, it examines whether the nineteenth-century Belgian monarchs can be described as influential, or even powerful. The volume also deals with another hiatus in history writing, namely food at nineteenth-century courts. The author addresses these two issues by examining the Belgian king and queen's dinner guests, as well as the food that was served at the palace. She considers questions such as who was invited, who got to share a table, how did the guest lists evolve over time, was the food adjusted according to the guests and how did the food evolve? A social network analysis of the dinner guests and a qualitative analysis of the court food are used as tools to tackle these questions. In this way, this book deals with issues that touch upon the very core of society's development: power, hierarchies, status, imitation, segregation and distinction.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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