Food and Memory in the Context of Migration

In this article, the topic of “thinking otherness through material culture” is presented through autobiographical narratives of Slovenian women migrants in the United States and their female descendants. The selected parts of the narratives speak about how food is tied to memory and remembering of the past. This connectedness is particularly interesting in the context of ethnic and intimate identities. One focus is therefore on the experiences of the construction of individual identities beyond the presupposed ethnic identity of migrants. The other deals with the exchange of goods, scents and memories in individually formed trans-national social fields. Particular attention is focused on the social, cultural and gendered contexts that are taken into the consideration as well as the personal experience of the researcher.
KEY WORDS: food and memory, migration contexts, intimate and personal identities, life narratives