THE MNEMONIC CONVERSION: FROM COMMUNICATIVE MEMORY TO CULTURAL MEMORY IN THE CULINARY MEMOIRS OF OLIA HERCULES

This article examines the two culinary memoirs of Olia Hercules, namely Summer Kitchens: Recipes and Reminiscences from Every Corner of Ukraine (2020) and Strong Roots (2025), to look at the transformation of everyday domestic practices from the fragile realm of communicative memory to the durable realm of cultural memory. Using the theoretical distinction between the interpersonal and institutionalized forms of remembering proposed by Jan Assman, the study demonstrates that the two select texts stabilize ephemeral and orally transmitted knowledge through embodied practice, affective intensity, and material codification. Summer Kitchen evokes a sensory-rich archive of domestic life. It foregrounds the Ukrainian culinary traditions as inherited, practiced, and socially situated forms of remembering. Strong Roots adds to this further by amplifying the whole process, especially during displacement and geopolitical rupture. Both the select memoirs of Hercules function as a counter-archive by converting the lived, domestic experiences into published cultural artifacts. The article also situates these select memoirs of Olia Hercules in a space where food narratives can materialize cultural continuity, hence operating as an important archive of national belonging.