Evaluative language in medical recipes in C19th cookery books written by women

Abstract

The recipe text has been the subject of previous studies from various perspectives, namely palaeographic, historical, linguistic, pharmaceutical. Examples of these studies on the genre include Taavitsainen (2001a), Carroll (2009), Alonso-Almeida (2013), Connolly (2016), Bator (2017), De la Cruz-Cabanillas (2017), Leong (2018), and have shown how recipes have been exceptional portrayals of both tradition and innovation. This is not surprising, as recipes are excellent means of conveying practical information in relatively short texts, thus facilitating immediate access to information and are therefore ideal for change to permeate as well. The relationship between medicine and cooking represents a long tradition, so it is not surprising to find an assortment of medical and culinary recipes in the same volumes, as already noted in Ruberto de Nola’s Libro de coȝina (1525, ff. 1v-2r), and so many others before him. Thus, cooking is conceived as a craft intended not only for tastebuds, but also for the restoration and/or preservation of good health; in both cases, authors strive to certify the quality and benefits of recipes through specific linguistic devices of evaluation, as reported in Jones (1998), Taavitsainen (2001b), Quintana-Toledo (2009) and Mäkinen (2011).

This presentation does not pursue a different aim from the studies mentioned above, but rather my intention is to provide evidence of the use of evaluative language as used in nineteenth-century cookbooks written by women. The lack of evidence for female authorship throughout history has, however, hindered women’s prominent participation in the interpretation and construction of medical and technical information. This fact has obviously contributed to creating a male-centred scenario, even though recipes have been quite closely related to women, at least within the domestic sphere. The 19th century offers a wealth of recipes that are undoubtedly attributed to women. Many of these recipes have received wide contemporary recognition, and have also come to occupy the relatively new field of the hospital diet. Drawing on evidence excerpted from the Corpus of Women’s Instructive Texts in English (Co-WITE)[1], currently being compiled at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, my intention is to offer evidence of evaluative language use from a gendered perspective. The method includes both manual and computerised inspection of the texts to identify legitimising strategies seeking to show the writers’ perspective concerning a particular recipe or procedure within a recipe. This includes modal and evidential devices, which are analysed within a cognitive theoretical framework (Marín-Arrese 2009; Langacker 2009) to show the use and function of these interpersonal strategies. While it is too early to say, I expect to find evaluative linguistic structures similar to those of the male authors, although their frequencies and functions may be different.