Abstract
Defining the relationships among food, spirituality, representation, and identity has been a formidable but necessary undertaking in African American literature. Exploring such connections involves reconfiguring traditional boundaries, specifically those related to America’s reductive notions about the consumption patterns and spiritual beliefs of African Americans. This paper shows that soul food involves more than the pleasure of eating and feeding. African Americans use soul food as an essential tool to trace their “roots” and forge communal ties. First, I briefly outline how soul food emerged as a culinary practice in the United States and explain its development in a society that historically devalued African American humanity and intellectual abilities. From there, I examine two sermons from Ralph Ellison’s second novel Juneteenth where preachers embraced soul food not only to remember the fevers and deaths of the Middle passage and the subsequent destruction of African language and culture but also to celebrate the acquisition of a new identity. He represents soul food as a form of Southern comfort and cultural resistance. Through this culinary practice, Ellison illustrates how African Americans creatively took care of their souls while as they combatted discrimination and second-class citizenship. Ralph Ellison believed that African Americans could persevere, even thrive in spite of racism and inequality. Ellison felt that blacks were more than the sum of their circumstances. From Ellison’s point of view, African Americans had a rich culture that deserved recognition, admiration, respect and above all, remembrance.
Presenters
Anton SmithAssociate Professor, Humanities, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Massachusetts, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Afro-American Spirituality, Afro-American Faith, Soul Food, Ralph Ellison, Afro-American Identity
