Overview

Mămăligă, maize porridge or polenta, is a universally consumed dish in Romania and a prominent national symbol. But its unusual history has rarely been told. Alex Drace-Francis surveys the arrival and spread of maize cultivation in Romanian lands from Ottoman times to the eve of the First World War, and also the image of mămăligă in art and popular culture. Drawing on a rich array of sources and with many new findings, Drace-Francis shows how the making of mămăligă has been shaped by global economic forces and overlapping imperial systems of war and trade.  The story of maize and mămăligă provides an accessible way to revisit many key questions of Romanian and broader regional history. More generally, the book links the history of production, consumption, and representation. Analyses of recipes, literary and popular depictions, and key vocabulary complete the work.

Full Product Details

Author:   Alex Drace-Francis
Publisher:   Central European University Press
Imprint:   Central European University Press
Weight:   0.310kg
ISBN:  

9789633866245

ISBN 10:   9633866243
Pages:   226
Publication Date:   15 September 2022
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

List of Maps, Graphs, Tables  Introduction: The Land is Waiting  Chapter 1. From the Caribbean to the Carpathians: The Coming of Cucuruz, c.1492-1700  Chapter 2. Conquerors, Cultivators, and Collaborators: Maize at Empire’s Edge, 1700-1774  Chapter 3. Conflict, Contagion and Commerce: The Triumph of Maize, 1774-1812  Chapter 4. Maize, Raki or Death: The Revolt of 1821 Reconsidered  Chapter 5. Mămăligă 2.0: Maize on the World Market, 1821-1856  Chapter 6. Independence, Capitalism, Disease and Revolt; Or, Why the Mămăligă Exploded, 1856-1907  Chapter 7. Manna valachorum: Recipes at the Interface  Chapter 8. ‘The sparrow dreams of cornmeal, and the idle man of a day of rest’: Mămăligă as Metaphor  Conclusion: The Land is Waiting  Appendix: Words and Things Glossary  Mămăligography  Illustration Credits Acknowledgements Index 

Reviews

Alex Drace-Francis's book is more than just a history of maize and mamaliga in the Romanian lands. Starting from the question of images, the author finds it not just in merchant caravans and peasant cauldrons, but also in the minds of people, in representations central to the national history. Maize and mamaliga are ideal entry points into Romanian cultural issues, but also into ones of social change and revolution. A remarkable, important book.--Constantin Barbulescu Erudite, convincing and thought-provoking, this book places the Romanian relationship with corn at the centre of the historical agenda as well as the table.--Cathie Carmichael

Author Information

Alex Drace-Francis is Associate Professor of Modern European Literary and Cultural History at the University of Amsterdam. He has published widely on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Romanian and Balkan social, cultural and literary history; on travel writing and circulation of ideas and images; and on European identity as a whole.

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