Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Francoise Vergés comments in her essay Let’s Cook! that “one could write the history of a
people, of a country, of a continent by writing the history of its culinary habits” (250 ).
Vergés here refers to the extent to which food can be seen to document and record certain
events or subjectivities. Exploring a wide range of texts spanning the late 1800s up to the
post-apartheid present, this thesis focuses in particular on the ways in which “spice” as
commodity, ingredient or symbol is employed to articulate and/or embed creole and diasporic
identities within the South African national context.
The first chapter maps the depiction of the “Malay” figure within cookery books, focussing
on the extent to which it is caught up in the trappings of the picturesque. This visibility is
often mediated by the figure’s proximity to food. These depictions are then placed in
conversation with the conceptual artist Berni Searle’s photographic and video installations.
Searle visually interrogates the stagnant modes of representation that accrue around the figure
of the “Malay” and moves toward understandings of how food and food narratives structure
cultural identity as complex and mutable.
Chapter two shifts focus from the Cape to the ways in which “Indian Cuisine” became
significant within the South African context. Here the Indian housewife plays a role in
perpetuating a distinctive cultural identity. The three primary texts discussed in this chapter
are the popular Indian Delights cookery book authored by the Women’s Cultural Group,
Shamim Sarif’s The World Unseen and Imraan Coovadia’s The Wedding. Indian Delights.
All illustrate the extent to which the realm of the kitchen, traditionally a female domain,
becomes a space from which alternative subjectivities can be made. The kitchen as a place for
cultural retention is explored further and to differing degrees in both The Wedding and The
World Unseen.
Ultimately, indentifying cultural heritage through food enables tracing alternative and
intersecting cultural identities that elsewhere, are often left out for neat and new ethnic,
cultural or national identities. The thesis will in particular explore the extent to which spices
used within creole and/or diasporic culinary practices encode complex affiliations and
connections. Tracing the intimacies and the disjunctures becomes productive within the postapartheid
present where the vestiges of apartheid’s taxonomical impetus alongside a new
multicultural model threaten to erase further the complexities and nuances of everyday life. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In haar artikel Let’s Cook! wys Francoise Vergés daarop dat die geskiedenis van ‘n mens, ‘n
land of selfs ‘n kontinent saamgestel sou kon word deur te skryf oor die geskiedenis van hulle
kos en eetgewoontes (250).Vergés skep hier ‘n besef van individuele en sosiale identiteit wat
deur kos geleenthede vasgevang kan word. Deur bronne vanaf die laat 1800’s tot die postapartheid
periode te bestudeer, fokus hierdie navorsing spesifiek op die wyse waarop
speserye as kommoditeit, inhoud of simbool gebruik word om die kreoolse en diasporiese
identiteite in Suid Afrika te bevestig of te bevraagteken.
Die eerste hoofstuk lewer ‘n uiteensetting en beskrywing, soos verkry uit kookboeke, van die
stereotypes wat vorm om die Maleise figuur. Daar word konsekwent gefokus op die mate
waarin die sigbaarheid van die Maleise identiteit verstrengel word in ‘n bestaande raamwerk
van diskoerse. Die Maleise figure word dikwels meer sigbaar in die konteks van kos en
eetgewoontes. Berni Searl se fotografiese en video installasies word gebruik om hierdie
stereotiepiese visuele kodes te bevraagteken. Searle ontgin die passiewe wyse waarop die
Maleise persoon visueel verbeeld word en beklemtoon dan hoe kos en gesprekke oor kos die
kulturele identiteit kompleks en dinamies maak.
Hoofstuk twee verskuif die klem vanaf die Kaap na die wyse waarop die Indiese kookkuns
identiteit kry in die Suid Afrikaanse konteks. Die fokus val hier op die rol van die Indiese
huisvrou en haar kombuis in die bevestiging en uitbou van ‘n onderskeibare kulturele
identiteit. Die drie kern tekste wat in hierdie hoofstuk bespreek word is die wel bekende en
populere Indian Delights kookboek wat saamgestel is deur die Women’s Cultural Group,
Shamim Sarif se The World Unseen en Imraan Coovadia se The Wedding. Indian Delights
toon verder die mate waarin die kombuis as primere domein van die vrou, ‘n ruimte bied vir
die formulering van alternatiewe subjek posisies. Die kombuis bied ook geleentheid vir
inherente subversie wat verder en op alternatiewe wyse ontgin word in die bronne The
Wedding en The World Unseen.
Deur kos te gebruik om kulturele identiteit te verstaan bied ook die geleentheid om kulturele
oorvleueling te verstaan al mag sommige groepe beskou word as onafhanklik in hul
oorsprong en identiteit. Hierdie navorsing gee spesifiek aandag aan die mate waarin speserye
en die gebruik daarvan in kreoolse en diasporiese kookkuns die kompleksiteite,
soortgelykhede, verskille en misverstande reflekteer. Dit is veral waardevol om te let op
soortgelykhede en verskille gegee dat die apartheidstaksonomie van die verlede en die huidige multikulturele model die rykheid en subtiele nuanseerings van die daaglikse bestaan
verder kan erodeer.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/20027 |
| Date | 03 1900 |
| Creators | De Beer, Esther |
| Contributors | Samuelson, Meg, Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of English. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | Unknown |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 114 p. |
| Rights | Stellenbosch University |
Page generated in 0.0032 seconds