“Kitchens Will Be Abolished”

An Exploration of How Traditional Female and Societal Norms Are Resisted Through Food in Brigitte Reimann’s Franziska Linkerhand and Karin Struck’s Klassenliebe

Abstract

This paper explores how traditional societal and female norms are resisted through food in Karin Struck’s Klassenliebe (1973) and Brigitte Reimann’s Franziska Linkerhand (1974). The role of food will be investigated through the lens of foodwork, which refers to all the practices associated with planning, purchasing, storing, cooking and preparing food. The 1970s in East and West Germany were marked by a (re-)negotiating of the role of women in society, in which female writers played an active part. This paper argues that practices around food play a vital part in the everyday resistance of traditional norms.