About that Which Does Not Leave Us: Memory, Affection and Taste in Rachel de Queiroz

This study discusses the interpenetration of the themes of literature and food present in Rachel de Queiroz's book O New me deixes: suas historias e sua cozinha (2000), in order to demonstrate the relation between food, memory and taste. The interweaving of these themes allows us to think about food practices, ingredients, ways of doing and those who are fed, beyond the subject of nutrition. In this sense, food holds a symbolic value, as a compendium, in which the taste/knowledge and the identities forged from this experience are deposited. As theoretical framework, this paper relies on the following studies: regarding taste, Giorgio Agamben (2015); about the relationship between memory and food, Walter Benjamin (2011); and about the transformation of food and its transition from nature to the state of culture, Claude Levi-Strauss (2004) and Michel Serres (2001).