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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores manuscript cookbooks as a source contributing to the study of uncertainty and coping mechanisms in the times of shortage, as well as a tool for remembering, belonging and dreaming not only in times of uncertainty during WW2, post-war displacement and population shifts.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores personal manuscript cookbooks as a source contributing to the study of uncertainty and coping mechanisms in the times of shortage. Presented set of manuscripts (in Czech and German language) stem from the case study carried out in the Czech-Bavarian borderland. The research methodology is based on archival research, written narrative food memories, participant observation and (un-)structured interviews. The theoretical framework is based on food and memory studies: concerning due to post-war displacement and population shifts, topic of remembering and belonging (Sutton 2001, 2020, Counihan 2004, Abarca - Colby 2016), as well as the broad field of identity and memory studies, especially Nora's concept of sites of memory (1989) and Appadurai's concept of armchair nostalgia (1996). The cookbook manuscript handwriting is described as an integral part of foodwork and mundane social interactions of the middle-class women (Theophano 2003, Lakhtikova 2017). Such manuscripts are not only passive places where successful cooking is written down, it is at the same time a tool for planning, dreaming and remembering. Using the magazine clippings, the manuscript integrates the public ideas about the home life and women roles in the authors private creative space. The everyday feeding duty of the women was especially challenging in the times of the uncertainty during WW2 and after war shortages are at the pages of such manuscripts surrounded by back then normalized advices and trends. Together such literary genre presents an interesting counterweight to the official cookbook publishing.