From the Table to the Discourse: A Reading of the Book “al-Ṭaʿām wa-al-Kalām: Ḥafriyyāt Balāġiyyah Ṯaqāfiyyah fī al-Turāṯ al-ʿArabī” by Sa’id La’uadi

Abstract

This article seeks to shed light on the duality of “food” and “speech” and clarify their remarkable presence in the authentic Arab heritage, through Dr. Said Laouadi’s book: “Food and Speech: Cultural and Linguistic Excavations in the Arab Heritage.” The research will explore the innovative approach adopted by Dr. Laouadi in linking food and speech as cultural phenomena that are not limited to their material or linguistic aspects, but transcend them to form a rich, harmonious cultural and rhetorical combination. The research will also reveal the rhetorical and cultural methodology adopted by the book, which enabled it to present a different interpretation of the Arab heritage. In addition, it will attempt to assess the role of this book in rediscovering the Arab heritage from a creative perspective, which has restored the importance of rhetoric and linked it to its various cultural contexts.