NATIONAL CUISINE AS A CULTURAL CONSTRUCT IN CONTEMPORARY RUSSIA

Maria Kapkan1*, Liliya Likhacheva2

1 Assoc. Prof. Dr., Ural Federal University, Russia, mnemozina9@gmail.com
2 Prof. Dr., Ural Federal University, Russia, likhacheva08@rambler.ru
*Corresponding author

Abstract

The national cuisine is a cultural construction aiming to maintain unity of the nation as an “imagined community”. It reflects the values of national culture in the everyday life. Formation of the national cuisine in Russia includes three stages. The first one dealt with awareness of uniqueness of Russian culture and cuisine during the War of 1812 when Russian people met French gastronomic culture. The second stage began after the Revolution of 1917. At that time the ethnic basis of the national cuisine was rejected and it was attempted to create the new Soviet cuisine combining culinary traditions of constituent people of the Soviet Union but reducing their differences. The third stage took place after the dissolution of the USSR. At this time the principles of Russian national cuisine are reinterpreted. At every stage transformations of national cuisine allow to reveal changes of ideology. Selection of “national” dishes, myths and legends about them reflects the key principles and meanings of national culture. This paper analyzes actual culinary books which were published during the last ten years and contained recipes of “Russian cuisine” and menus of restaurants positioned as national. The survey shows that actual ideas concerning the Russian national cuisine combine pre-Revolutionary and Soviet dishes and traditions, and new foreign culinary borrowings. There are two images of the Russian national culture. The first one postulates uniqueness and identity of the Russian culture formed before the Revolution of 1917. The latter is of more democratic character and presents the national culture as dynamic and consistently enriching entity. Thus, the connection between the past and the present in the national culture is pointed out.

Keywords: national cuisine, national culture, Russian cuisine, culinary books, social construction.


FULL TEXT PDF

CITATION: Abstracts & Proceedings of SOCIOINT 2018- 5th International Conference on Education, Social Sciences and Humanities, 2-4 July 2018- Dubai, UAE

ISBN: 978-605-82433-3-0