Table talk (literature)

Table talkis a literary genre, a species of memoir. A collector (biographer, colleague, friend, etc.) records impromptu comments by some famous person (made generally at the dining table or in small get-togethers), in anticipation of their lasting value. The precedent in classical literature was the account of asymposium,such as theTable Talk(Symposiaka) ofPlutarch,though this was a supposed memoir of an occasion, rather than a person.^[1]^[2]^[3]This classical genre itself derives from the more philosophicaldialogueswritten by the followers ofSocrates,and in particular theSymposiaofPlatoandXenophon.

"Table talk" may also refer to a similar informal conversation, more deliberately engaged in by the famous person, with the direct intent of publication (somewhat analogous to granting an interview).

Collections

Collections of such table talks by royal persons, celebrities, and other important personalities dating back to the 3rd century exist. The phrasetable talkhas been in use in theEnglish languagesince the 16th century.

As examples, published table talks exist for:

Martin Luther(1483–1546), seeTable Talk;
John Selden(1584–1654);
John Milton(1608–1674);
Samuel Johnson(1707–1784);
Frederick the Great(1712–1786);
Johann von Goethe(1749–1832), seeGespräche mit Goethe;
Napoleon Bonaparte(1769–1821);
Ludwig van Beethoven(1770–1827), seeGerman:Konversationshefte;
Samuel Taylor Coleridge(1772–1834);
Amos Bronson Alcott(1799–1888);
Alexander Pushkin(1799–1837), seeTable-talk
George Bernard Shaw(1856–1950);
Adolf Hitler(1889–1945), see "Hitler's Table Talk";
Wystan Hugh Auden(1907–1973);
Orson Welles(1915–1985).

Occasionally, comments are collected from others by a notable person as part of that person's working notes and may survive in the papers of that person.Ralph Waldo Emerson,for example, kept notes on the conversations of his family and friends, many of whom, of course, were noteworthy.

References

^Todd M. Richardson (2011).Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Art Discourse in the Sixteenth-century Netherlands.Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 70.ISBN 978-0-7546-6816-9.
^Phyllis Pray Bober (2001).Art, Culture, and Cuisine: Ancient and Medieval Gastronomy.University of Chicago Press. p. 102.ISBN 978-0-226-06254-9.
^Dennis E. Smith; Hal Taussig (2012).Meals in the Early Christian World: Social Formation, Experimentation, and Conflict at the Table.Palgrave Macmillan. p. 13.ISBN 978-1-137-03248-5.

Table talk (literature)

Collections

References

Further reading