Böcker av Alex Drace-Francis

M¿m¿lig¿, 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 m¿m¿lig¿ in art and popular culture. Drawing on a rich array of sources and with many new findings, Drace-Francis shows how the making of m¿m¿lig¿ has been shaped by global economic forces and overlapping imperial systems of war and trade. The story of maize and m¿m¿lig¿ 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.

With an introductory overview, notes on each text, and a guide to further reading, Alex Drace-Francis brings issues of European identity into sharp relief for both teachers and students of European history, geography, culture and politics.

How do literacy and the development of literary culture promote the development of a national identity? This book challenges the notion that Western ideas were essential to Romanian development. It is a fascinating story of how a national culture is born. It provides a history of the development of literary culture and the printed word in Romania.