Nostalgic Albums or Alternative Lieux de Mémoire? The Interplay between Stories, Photographs, and Recipes in Ethnic Culinary Memoirs
Résumé
In this essay, I analyze the role played by the rich text-image relationship in Carole and Norma Jean Darden’s Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine. Recipes and Reminiscences of Family (1978), an iconic text in African American culinary literature, and Laura Schenone’s The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken (2007), which reflects a major concern of third generation immigrants—cultural assimilation leading to loss of roots. I do not intend to downplay the role Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine has played in African American culinary literature, being well-aware of the context in which it was published, in the wake of the Civil Rights and Black Arts movements. Rather, I am interested in the role a text image interface can play to create a space of cultural memory and attempt to restore the history of a family, which also recalls the history of a community.