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Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation is to propose a conceptual framework in which critical discourse analysis (CDA) can be applied using two approaches to support and examine the creation of discursive spaces; spaces that serve as formative areas for honoring foodways, acknowledging cultural histories, and addressing injustices. These formative areas thereby constitute and situate the value of a conceptual framework that can be utilized for understanding the multifaceted relationship between food and culture. Food as a critical component of culture is thus positioned in the Dynamic Model of Food and Culture (DMFC) which is comprised of three independent yet interrelated constructs: Heritage (the origin of cuisine and the manifestation of foodways), Practice (the representation and interpretation), and Power (the structural, systematic, and evocative nature). Development of this model is predicated on the following rationale: in order to understand the relationship between food and culture to create formative discursive spaces, one must understand: (1) the facets related to, and extending from, the origin of the food and culture of inquiry; (2) the way in which food is (mis)represented within, or as an aspect of, or adjacent to, culture; (3) structural and systematic forces that influencetangible and intangible aspects of food and culture. As a lens of inquiry, Eastern North Carolina and South Carolina barbecue, a cuisine central to Southern food culture, was examined through application of the discourse historical approach and dialectical- relational approach, used concurrently with the DMFC, to demonstrate the framework as a relevant model for the critical study of food and culture. Through the theoretical tradition of postcolonialism, an interpretation of the data was presented as related to the dialectic relationships of the constructs of Heritage, Power, and Practice, while attending to the fundamental aspects of critical discourse analysis: critique, power, and ideology.