“Something Borrowed, Something New”: Memory and Oblivion in Food Discourse in Post-Soviet Eastern Europe

Abstract

The article highlights the discourse of food as it relates to memory and oblivion. Though memory is an ability to store and reproduce infor- mation, frequently individual or even collective reproductions hardly match reality. As an object of longing in reconstructing and reimagining the past to fit real or perceived identity, food is one of the mainstays of nostalgia. Nostalgia is also the reason why an old narrative, when it is refashioned and imported into a new frame as a new narrative, may be of doubtful veracity. As our food memories bridge the chasms of time and space and define not only our eating habits but our identity, the importance of what and how we remember cannot be overstated. The object of the article is threefold. On the basis of the culinary myths of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, it shows how mem- ory traps result in a non-isomorphic perception of reality. Secondly, it describes the transformation of food memories for a diaspora. Finally, it illustrates certain functions of food, such as protest, which may be viewed as a challenge to oblivion.