Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am going to explore and discuss the role of food within 20^th

Century novels Southern literary novels about race, social injustice and the politics of food. The books I am going to discuss are all what one might consider classic novels, who use traditional comfort foods as a way of exploring the availability of it certain groups of people, the way they cook it and how they serve it. Particularly how the limited ingredients available to these groups were utilised. I am going to use a section from Anthropologist Mary Douglas' 'Food in Social Order' to discuss how or why certain foods are prepared and used the way that they are. The introduction to the book explains

“People die of starvation in front of food filled shops. The causes are complex shifts in the legal entitlements which determine individuals’ access to food”

In particular, I will be looking and how and why these foods became 'comfort foods'. Traditional recipes that are typically used continuously throughout generations of families, and why they are so important. It is interesting to see that whilst much of the comfort food and soul food are national treasures of America, there is a difference in the meaning between white and black families.

Bob Jefferis, owner of restaurant 'Daly's Dandelion' in New York in the 60's explains the difference in his recipe book 'Soul Food Cookbook (1970). He says

“While all soul food is Southern food, not all Southern food is soul. Soul food cooking is an example of how really good Southern [African-American] cooks cooked with what they had available to them.”

With all of the authors I am focusing on having written their novels during the Civil Rights Movement, it is key for us as readers to explore their work as much of it is based on, or includes elements of their own experiences. Food can often be overlooked when looking at symbolic elements of a novel, yet it can be so crucial for expressing thoughts, feelings and social, economic and political elements of a specific period in time.

Four college students who sat down and ordered coffee at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., on Feb. 1, 1960. They were freshmen at North Carolina A&T College (Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr. and David ). The four men sat until the store closed, but were refused coffee. They sat until the store closed, but did nor receive anything.