Home Food meaning: From tasty to flavorful
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Food meaning: From tasty to flavorful

  • Gianfranco Marrone EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: May 12, 2016
Semiotica
From the journal Semiotica Volume 2016 Issue 211

Abstract

Considering as a starting point Greimas’s last work (De l’imperfection), taken into very little consideration by later semiotic research, I would like to see whether it would be possible to make, in the field of taste, the distinction that Greimas did in the visual field: between a “figurative” taste (that I should call tasty) and a “plastic” taste (that I should call flavorful). Much has been discussed about the synesthetic nature of gustatory sensoriality. But very little has been said about links and differences between an intellectualistic taste perception (i. e., recognition of figures of food through semantic grids) and a taste perception of a pure aesthetic nature, supported by the former and producing further significations that cannot be reproduced through language words. How does an aesthetic grasp of taste work, if it works at all? In order to answer this question I will briefly analyze different kinds of texts.

Keywords: food; taste; figurative/plastic; tasty/flavorful; aesthetic grasp; perception

References

Appelbaum, Robert. 2011. Dishing it out. London: Reaktion.Search in Google Scholar

Axel, Gabriel (dir.). 1987. Babette’s Feast [Motion Picture]. Denmark.Search in Google Scholar

Barthes, Roland. 1978. Leçon. Paris: Seuil.Search in Google Scholar

Blixen, Karen (=Isak Dinesen). 1958. Babette’s feast. In Anecdotes of destiny, 23–70. London: Random House.Search in Google Scholar

Boutaud, Jean-Jacques. 2005. Le sens gourmand. Paris: Rocher.Search in Google Scholar

Cavalieri, Rosalia. 2011. Gusto. L’intelligenza del palato. Rome & Bari: Laterza.Search in Google Scholar

Fabbri, Paolo. 2001. Catharsis. Again? In Isabella Pezzini (ed.), Semiotic efficacity and the effectiveness of the text, 289–300. Turnhout: Brepols.Search in Google Scholar

Floch, Jean-Marie. 1995. Identités visuelles. Paris: Puf.Search in Google Scholar

Greimas, Algirdas Julien. 1984. Sémiotique plastique et sémiotique figurative. Actes sémiotiques, Documents VI. 60.Search in Google Scholar

Greimas, Algirdas Julien. 1987. De l’imperfection. Périguex: P. Fanlac.Search in Google Scholar

Landowski, Eric. 1997. Presences de l’autre. Paris: Puf.Search in Google Scholar

Leroi-Gourhan, A. 1964. Le geste et la parole. Paris: Colin.Search in Google Scholar

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1962a. La Pensée sauvage. Paris: Plon.Search in Google Scholar

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1962b. Le totemisme aujourd’hui. Paris: Plon.10.3917/puf.strau.2002.01Search in Google Scholar

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1968. Mythologiques III: L’origines de manières de table. Paris: Plon.Search in Google Scholar

Mangano, Dario & Gianfranco Marrone (eds.). 2013. Dietetica e semiotica. Milan: Mimesis.Search in Google Scholar

Mangiapane, Francesco. 2013. Il pranzo di Babele. In Dario Mangano & Gianfranco Marrone (eds.) Dietetica e semiotica, 227–260. Milan: Mimesis.Search in Google Scholar

Marrone, Gianfranco & Alice Giannitrapani (eds.). 2012. La cucina del senso. Milan: Mimesis.Search in Google Scholar

Marrone, Gianfranco & Alice Giannitrapani (eds.). 2013. Mangiare: Istruzioni per l’uso. E/C 14.Search in Google Scholar

Perullo, Nicola. 2006. Per un’estetica del cibo. Palermo: Aesthetica Preprint.Search in Google Scholar

Perullo, Nicola. 2008. L’altro gusto. Saggi di estetica gastronomica. Pisa: Ets.Search in Google Scholar

Perullo, Nicola. 2010. Filosofia della gastronomia laica. Rome: Meltemi.Search in Google Scholar

Perullo, Nicola. 2011. Esperienza estetica, cucina, gastronomia. Estetica 1. 227–235.Search in Google Scholar

Perullo, Nicola (ed.). 2012a. Wineworld: New essays on wine, taste, philosophy and aesthetics. Rivista di estetica 51.Search in Google Scholar

Perullo, Nicola. 2012b. Il gusto come esperienza. Bra: Slow Food.Search in Google Scholar

Pozzato, Maria Pia. 2012. Paesaggi al cucchiaio. In Gianfranco Marrone (ed.), Semiotica della natura (natura della semiotica), 169–181. Milan: Mimesis.Search in Google Scholar

Sangiorgi, Sandro. 2010. L’invenzione della gioia. Rome: Porthos.Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2016-5-12
Published in Print: 2016-7-1

©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  3. The Umberto Eco gaze
  4. “La morte non avrà signoria”: Domande per Umberto Eco
  5. Vistas for organized global semiotics
  6. Semiotics of food
  7. Introduction: Semiotics of food
  8. Food and translation
  9. The translation of food in literature: A culinary journey through time and genres
  10. Semiosis of intercultural cooking: The nineteenth century travel literature as a case study
  11. The semiotics of migrants’ food: Between codes and experience
  12. Lost in translation: Food, identity and otherness
  13. Glocal and food: On alimentary translation
  14. Contemporary foodspheres
  15. A note on the meanings of junk food
  16. Are nutrients also good to think?
  17. Critique of the culinary reason
  18. Food and taste
  19. Food meaning: From tasty to flavorful
  20. L’esthésique et l’épiphanique: Traces figuratives de la saveur
  21. Taste and meaning
  22. Cooking and eating
  23. The culinary and social-semiotic meaning of food: Spicy meals and their significance in Mexico, Italy, and Texas
  24. Semiotic food, semiotic cooking: The ritual of preparation and consumption of hallacas in Venezuela
  25. Food and communication
  26. Myths, traditions, and rituals of food in Spanish cinema
  27. Starred cosmopolitanism: Celebrity chefs, documentaries, and the circulation of global desire
  28. Food design chez Bras
  29. Food design: Symbols of our daily nutrition
  30. Food-ography: Food and new media
https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2016-0103
Keywords for this article
food; taste; figurative/plastic; tasty/flavorful; aesthetic grasp; perception

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  3. The Umberto Eco gaze
  4. “La morte non avrà signoria”: Domande per Umberto Eco
  5. Vistas for organized global semiotics
  6. Semiotics of food
  7. Introduction: Semiotics of food
  8. Food and translation
  9. The translation of food in literature: A culinary journey through time and genres
  10. Semiosis of intercultural cooking: The nineteenth century travel literature as a case study
  11. The semiotics of migrants’ food: Between codes and experience
  12. Lost in translation: Food, identity and otherness
  13. Glocal and food: On alimentary translation
  14. Contemporary foodspheres
  15. A note on the meanings of junk food
  16. Are nutrients also good to think?
  17. Critique of the culinary reason
  18. Food and taste
  19. Food meaning: From tasty to flavorful
  20. L’esthésique et l’épiphanique: Traces figuratives de la saveur
  21. Taste and meaning
  22. Cooking and eating
  23. The culinary and social-semiotic meaning of food: Spicy meals and their significance in Mexico, Italy, and Texas
  24. Semiotic food, semiotic cooking: The ritual of preparation and consumption of hallacas in Venezuela
  25. Food and communication
  26. Myths, traditions, and rituals of food in Spanish cinema
  27. Starred cosmopolitanism: Celebrity chefs, documentaries, and the circulation of global desire
  28. Food design chez Bras
  29. Food design: Symbols of our daily nutrition
  30. Food-ography: Food and new media
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 18.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/sem-2016-0103/html
Scroll to top button