Abstract

This thesis interrogates the ways that the material biographies of the Creole and Cajun cuisines of southern Louisiana undermine and ultimately betray the discursive fictions that they are typically required to perform in popular culinary discourse. The thesis begins with an investigation of the contemporary literature concerning the commodity, commodity fetishism and consumption, particularly in the arena of cuisine, in order to better understand how the commodification of cuisine enables specific fantasies regarding American colonial history related to race and ethnicity. After elaborating the concept of the biography of the object, the thesis studies six specific recipes in detail. The historical trajectories of key ingredients in the recipes are traced in order to explore the ways the development of cuisine in 18 th -century Louisiana related to the violent interaction between French and Spanish colonists, Native American peoples, and the enslaved West African labour force. The thesis concludes by reconceptualizing the cuisines of Louisiana as diasporic cuisines.