Saga - 2018, Page 183

Abstract
sigurbjörg elín hólmarsdóttir
„NICELy SERVED FOOD“
The housewife as hostess in Icelandic cookbooks, 1800–1975
Cookbooks represent interesting sources on lifestyles. While they have hitherto
mostly been utilised for studies of food culture and consumption, they are
increasingly being investigated to study the role of the housewife and how it has
developed historically and geographically. The idea has been voiced that whereas
society allowed women to write and publish cookbooks, other writings by them
met with disapproval. The reason for the exception was that cookbooks were felt
to belong above all to the private sphere, i.e. the home. Furthermore, they were
usually compiled by women who were connected to home economics schools or
schools for women, and were aimed at housewives. Cookbook authors in Iceland
generally had some connection to Denmark, came from the higher echelons of
society and emphasised bourgeois customs, so that their cookbooks now serve as
intriguing research material on the social and cultural shaping of the role of
housewife.
This article concentrates on the housewife’s functions as a hostess, including
serving, table manners, decorations and, last but not least, her social duties. The
materials studied were Icelandic cookbooks published between 1800 and 1975,
with Pierre Bourdieu’s theories on the four types of capital serving as a basis for
analysis. The purpose was to reveal how a housewife could increase her capital,
i.e. raise the value of her work, by utilising cookbook instructions. As Bourdieu
notes, capital only has value if it is socially accepted, and the role of hostess gave
the housewife an ideal opportunity to demonstrate her capital.
The first Icelandic cookbook was published in 1800 and was intended for
upper-class housewives; in contrast, the last one studied, published in 1975,
focused on everyday circumstances and family togetherness at mealtimes. The job
of the hostess – to show good taste and etiquette — had yielded to the role of
mother. In this way, the cookbooks of the period reflect trends in the social status
of women.
It is maintained that women who were versed in the latest bourgeois mann -
ers, as well as traditional Icelandic dishes and customs, were supported by their
cultural and social capital in writing books which instructed other women on
proper behaviour. Cookbook authors thereby established and maintained their
own position in society, as well as managing to a large degree to control what was
considered good taste for Icelandic housewives. The housewife reader, on the oth-
er hand, was able to follow these instructions in order to augment her own capital
and even the reputation of her household.
„fallega framreiddur matur“ 181
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