The Uses of Fruit: Literary Symbolism and Technological Change in the Long Eighteenth Century

Abstract

This article explores the representation of fruit in English literary texts from the long eighteenth century, showing how writers responded to developments in horticultural technology to diversify the symbolic associations of fruit derived from biblical and classical sources. The dichotomy of native and foreign produce that characterised the georgic poetry of the early eighteenth century was increasingly displaced by oppositions of hardy, natural and wholesome orchard fruits and delicate, unnatural and unhealthy exotic fruits. In the Romantic period novel the representation of fruit draws on the discourse of luxury so that tropical fruit is used to connote the extravagance of new money but also effeminacy and the disruption of the patriarchal order.

Usawiri wa taswira za ngono katika nyimbo za Bongofleva: mifano kutoka nyimbo teule za WCB

“…Ni hali ya kawaida kutumia matunda mbalimbali kujenga taswira ya kitu kingine kutokana na rangi pamoja na umbo la tunda husika. Kwa mfano, tunda la tufaa hutumika kujenga taswira ya upendo na tamaa; zabibu hutumika kujenga taswira ya wokovu na utajiri; tende hutumika kujenga taswira ya uzazi na tango hutumika kujenga taswira ya uume (Bellamy, 2015). Katika makala hii, tumebaini kuwa tunda aina ya ndizi limetumika kujenga taswira ya kiungo cha ngono, hususani uume.…”