Food, Masculinity and Gender-based Violence in Sally Andrew’s Recipes for Love and Murder (2015)

Summary

This article offers a reading of Sally Andrew’s debut murder mystery novel, Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery (2015), from the angle of critical food studies. The article explores how the novel’s depiction of food relates to notions of masculinity and power against the backdrop of widespread gender-based violence in South Africa today. I argue that the protagonist and narrator’s reverent, restorative relationship with food represents a gentle yet powerful feminine counternarrative to the violent masculinities of subjugation embodied in Fanie’s dogmatic religious ideology, Dirk’s oppressive military indoctrination, and Cornelius’s cruel hunting practices. Beyond providing mere escapism, this supposedly “popular” novel can therefore be seen as delivering sharp, timely social commentary.

Opsomming

Hierdie artikel beskou die speurverhaal en debuut van Sally Andrew, Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery (2015), deur die lens van kritiese kosstudies. Die artikel verken hoedat die roman se uitbeelding van kos verband hou met bepaalde idees rondom manlikheid en mag teen die agtergrond van wydverspreide geslags- gegronde geweld in Suid-Afrika vandag. Ek voer aan dat die hoofkarakter en verteller se eerbiedige, helende verhouding met kos ’n sagte vroulike teenwig bied vir die gewelddadige manlike houdings van oorheersing soos vergestalt in Fanie se dog- matiese religieuse ideologie, Dirk se geharde militêre indoktrinasie, en Cornelius se wrede jagpraktyke. Hierdie oënskynlik “populêre” roman bied dus meer as blote ontvlugting, en lewer stellig skerp en tydige sosiale kommentaar.