Secret Cuisine: Alterity and Gastronomy in Nine Moati's "Les Belles de Tunis"

Debbie Barnard

Abstract


Tunisia’s first president, Habib Bourguiba, developed the concept of tunisianité to encompass all of the cultural influences that his newly independent nation had known over millennia of outside domination, but the term leaves out the important contributions of Tunisia’s Jewish community. Nine Moati’s novel, Les Belles de Tunis, chronicles the history of this important community, and emphasizes the subtle ways in which Jewish influence manifests itself in Tunisian cuisine.  This influence belies the alterity that the official marginalization of various governments in Tunisia has imposed on the Jewish community, and requires a broadening of Bourguiba’s definition of tunisianité.

Keywords


Tunisia; cuisine; alterity; Jewish; identity

References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/lsmll.2022.46.1.59-68
Date of publication: 2022-05-06 15:58:38
Date of submission: 2021-10-14 19:58:53


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