Boule de Suif | The Decline and Fall of Elisabeth Rousset: Text and Context in Maupassant’s 'Boule de suife'
In the following essay excerpt, Donaldson- Evans discusses the main sexual theme and subthemes of nutrition, socioeconomics, and the military in ‘‘Boule de suif,’’ while placing the story within the context of Maupassant’s ‘‘war’’ and ‘‘whore’’ stories.
As can be discerned from this outline, ‘‘Boule de suif’’ is constructed upon the interplay of three thematic ‘‘sub-codes’’—the nutritional, the politicoeconomic and the military—with the main code which is sexual. To understand the way in which these codes function, it is necessary to consider the text in both its diachronic and synchronic dimensions. It is also useful, although not essential, to place ‘‘Boule de suif’’ in the context of Maupassant’s war stories, on the one hand, and his ‘‘whore’’ stories, on the other. It is not by chance that the...
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