Food and Crime Fiction: Two Complementary Approaches to the Vietnamese Past in Tran-Nhut's Les travers du docteur Porc

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Tess Do

Abstract

With a series of detective novels set in 17th century Dai-Viet that showcase the traditions, beliefs and customs of an exotic culture, in which the food and food habits of the Vietnamese people play a prominent role, Thanh-Van Tran-Nhut, an engineer-turned-novelist of Vietnamese origins, has carved a niche for herself in the popular crime fiction market in France. This paper focuses on the novel Les Travers du Docteur Porc, in which Doctor Porc, forensic investigator and gourmand extraordinaire, adopts the mantle of chief detective from Tran-Nhut’s usual protagonist, the loyal mandarin Tan. In this movement, we argue, the author has shaped two different but complementary approaches to her birth-country’s turbulent past that coalesce in the gargantuan figure of the (politically unencumbered) doctor and connoisseur of Vietnamese cuisine. Whereas the process of ‘solving the crime’ can be read as an attempt to seek answers and restore order in the wake of senseless bloodshed, it is food, we contend, that emerges, not only as a source of pleasure, succour and stability, but as a cultural heritage that war and upheaval failed to destroy.

Article Details

Section
Edible Alterities: Perspectives from La Francophonie Special Issue July 2013 (Peer Reviewed)
Author Biography

Tess Do, The University of Melbourne

Tess Do is a Lecturer in French at the School of Languages & Linguistics, University of Melbourne. She has written on Linda Lê, Azouz Begag, Béatrix Beck (France), Jean Vanmai (New Caledonia), Le Hoang (film director, Vietnam). Her current research focuses on the areas of food and cultural heritage, in particular, the role food and memory play in the post-colonial migrant experience (Thanh-Van Tran-Nhut, Anna Moï).