Syllabus

I. Introduction to Literacy, Discourse, and Rhetoric (The Personal Essay)

The Language and Stories of Food – Taste, Memory, Family, Place

Week 1

Tuesday, 9/6

• Introductions

Friday, 9/9

• Joan Didion, Why I Write – http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/schools/whitmanhs/academics/english/Why%20I%20Write%20Didion.pdf
• Ann Lamott, School Lunches – http://www.hornellcityschools.com/teachers/demarco/summer_work/Lamott.pdf
• Marcel Proust, The Cookie – http://www.haverford.edu/psych/ddavis/p109g/proust.html (75)
• Forward and Introduction to Eating Words (xix-xxxiii)
• Betty Fussell, Eating My Words (439)

Week 2

Tuesday, 9/13

• MFK Fisher, from The Gastronomical Me– http://autobiographyandmemoir.voices.wooster.edu/files/2011/08/gastronomical-me1.pdf (93)
• Julia Child, from My Life in France (200)
• Ruth Reichl, “The Queen of Mold,” from Tender at the Bone – https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/r/reichl-tender.html (also: 143)
• Gabrielle Hamilton, from Blood, Bones and Butter – http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/01/17/the-lamb-roast (302)

Friday, 9/16

• Mark Twain, Hunting the Deceitful Turkey – http://biblioklept.org/2013/11/26/hunting-the-deceitful-turkey-mark-twain/
• Anthony Bourdain –From Our Kitchen To Your Table (294); from Kitchen Confidential  (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/aug/12/features.weekend)

Week 3

Tuesday, 9/20 – Library (Room 114)

• Maxine Hong Kingston, from Woman Warrior (120)
• Audre Lorde, from Zami (109)
• Jhumpa Lahiri, Indian Takeout (183)
• Louise DeSalvo, from Crazy in the Kitchen (130)

• [OPTIONAL: Gubar (135), Ehrlich (161), Abu-Jaber (168), Furiya (176), Gonzalez, (346)]

Friday, 9/23

• Julia Child, from My Life in France (200)
• Diane Ackerman, from A Natural History of the Senses (229)
• Alice B. Toklas, from The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook (260)

Week 4

Tuesday, 9/27

• Jeffrey Steingarten, from The Man Who Ate Everything (213)
• Francine Prose, from Cocktail Hour at the Snake Blood Bar (223)

Friday, 9/30

Poetry

• William Carlos Williams, This Is Just To Say (192)
• Seamus Heaney, Oysters (210)
• Li Young Lee, Persimmons (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171753/), From Blossoms (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171754), Eating Together (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171757), Eating Alone (http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/eating-alone)
• Charles Simic, Night Picnic (http://exceptindreams.tumblr.com/post/43828466600/night-picnic-charles-simic); Romantic Sonnet (http://mareeblogblogblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/romantic-sonnet-charles-simic-evenings.html), The Melon (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/236976)
• Robert Hass, Meditation at Lagunitas (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177014), The Feast (http://awp.diaart.org/poetry/95_96/hass.html)
• Langston Hughes, Harlem Sweeties – http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177389
• Kim Addonizio, Eating Together – http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/31069

• PAPER 1 DUE

II. Inquiry and Argument, Public Discourse and Civic Action (The Argument Essay)

Food Cultures & Politics – Mythologies, Ideologies, Trends, Ethics, Environment, Climate, Local/Global, Animals, Agriculture, Slow/Fast

Week 5

Tuesday, 10/4

• William Berry, “The Pleasures of Eating” – https://colchesterfarm.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/wendell-berry-the-pleasures-of-eating.pdf
• Michael Pollan, excerpt from Food Rules: http://michaelpollan.com/foodrules-slideshow.html AND http://michaelpollan.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/food_rules_excerpt.pdf
• Roland Barthes, “Steak & Chips” – https://soundenvironments.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/roland-barthes-mythologies.pdf
• In So What? 
  “Practicing Argument” (p.12-14)
  “The Rhetorical Situation” (p.16-17)
  “How Do We Build Arguments?” (p.35-39)

Friday, 10/7

• Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan, et al. “How a National Food Policy Could Save Millions of Lives” – http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/how-a-national-food-policy-could-save-millions-of-american-lives/

[OPTIONAL: Pollan, In Defense of Food – http://michaelpollan.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/in_defense_excerpt.pdf]

Week 6

Tuesday, 10/11 – Fall Break

Friday, 10/14

• Michael Pollan, from Omnivore’s Dilemma (416)
• Barbara Kingsolver, “You Can’t Run Away on Harvest Day” (410)
• Alan Richman, “My Beef with Vegans” (386)
• David Foster Wallace, from Consider the Lobster (422)
• [Optional: Pollan, An Animal’s Place – http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/an-animals-place/]

• FILM: FOOD INC.

Week 7

Tuesday, 10/18

• David H. Freedman, How Junk Food Can End Obesity – http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/07/how-junk-food-can-end-obesity/309396/
• Bettina Elias Siegel, The Real Problem With Lunch – http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/16/opinion/the-real-problem-with-lunch.html?_r=1

Friday, 10/21

• Eric Schlosser, from Fast Food Nation (419)
• Moises Velasquez-Manoff, The Myth of Big, Bad Gluten – http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/opinion/sunday/the-myth-of-big-bad-gluten.html

Food & Identity – Gender, Class, Nation, Ethnicity, Sexuality, Body Image, Hunger

Week 8

Tuesday, 10/25

• Sandra Cisneros, My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn – http://www.ltisdschools.org/cms/lib09/TX21000349/Centricity/Domain/1609/Sandra%20Cisneros.pdf
• Lisa Miller, What Food Says About Class in America – http://www.newsweek.com/what-food-says-about-class-america-69951
• Read Sections A, C, D, E, F: http://www.racialjusticeproject.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2012/06/NYLS-Food-Deserts-Report.pdf

• [Optional–Continued Reading on Race & Food: Frederick Douglass, from My Bondage and My Freedom (60), Henry Louis Gates, Jr., from Colored People (156), related chapters in Black Hunger: https://muse.jhu.edu/book/31544, and Cultivating Food Justice: https://muse.jhu.edu/book/23088]

Friday, 10/28

• Susan Bordo, Hunger as Ideology – http://wikialli.pbworks.com/f/bordo.pdf

Food as Art – Visual Representations, Performance, Film, Pop Culture, Multi-Media

Week 9

Tuesday, 11/1

1.Readings

• William Deresiewicz, How Food Replaced Art as High Culture – http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/opinion/sunday/how-food-replaced-art-as-high-culture.html
• Jacquelyn Strycker, From Palate to Palette: Can Food Be Art? – http://createquity.com/2013/01/from-palate-to-palette-can-food-be-art/
• In So What?: pgs. 140-142, 177-178, 181-182, 195-206

2. Review examples of convergences of food & art (we will look closely at these in class):

• Lee Price: http://www.leepricestudio.com/d4cxfm44iqf6o8hirsohhq58scv8w3
• Carl Warner’s Foodscapes: http://carlwarner.com/photographer/foodscape-commissions/
• Christopher Boffoli’s Big Appetites: http://www.bigappetites.net/
• Liz Hikcok’s NYC and SF in Jell-O: http://lizhickok.com/167872/san-francisco-in-jell-o/
• Fallen Fruit in LA: http://fallenfruit.org/
• Jennifer Rubell: http://jenniferrubell.com/projects
• Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/home
• Nadine Boughton: http://nadineboughton.com/
• Yeon Ju’s Wearable Food: http://www.yeonju.me/work_wf.php
• Heston Blumenthal: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-448840/Seafood-served-ipod-Heston-Blumenthals-latest-recipe.html; http://soundsunheard.com/heston-blumenthal-sound-of-the-sea/
• Homaro Cantu & Ben Roche: https://www.ted.com/talks/homaro_cantu_ben_roche_cooking_as_alchemy?language=en

• [Optional further reading about this topic: Elizabeth Telfer, Food as Art – http://www.food.unt.edu/arguments/Telfer.pdf]

Friday, 11/4

• Explore the connections between music and food (see related post)

III.       Getting to the Core of Education: Exploring, Entering, and Participating in Academic Discourse Communities (The Research Essay)

Week 10

Tuesday, 11/8

• “On Buying Local” (Katherine Spriggs) — spriggs-on-buying-local

Friday, 11/11

• ESSAY 2 DUE

Week 11

Tuesday, 11/15

• TED talks: https://www.ted.com/topics/food

Friday, 11/18

• FILM: Tampopo
• Proposal for ESSAY 3 DUE (see Writing)

Week 12

Tuesday, 11/22

• Read Susan Minot, “Thanksgiving Day” — thanksgiving-day-susan-mino
• Intro for ESSAY 3 Due (see Writing)
• Research and Annotated Bibliography Due (see Writing)

Friday, 11/25 – NO CLASS — Thanksgiving break

Week 13

Tuesday, 11/29

• Restaurant Reviews: Read a variety of restaurant reviews; see Frank Bruni (NYT), Jonathan Gold (LA Times), Adam Platt (NY Magazine), Pete Wells (NYT), Alan Richman (GQ), etc. –>> Write your own review based on an experience eating in a restaurant (or at the dining hall if you didn’t eat out) this past weekend; if there’s a recent restaurant experience prior to this weekend which you can recall in full detail, write on that. Model your review after the style of any of these reviewers. Award the restaurant 1-5 stars at the end of your review. [1 page, single-spaced, titled] Remember: reviews can address positive and negative aspects, although here’s one by Pete Wells that took a singular direction entirely…definitely worth a read:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/dining/reviews/restaurant-review-guys-american-kitchen-bar-in-times-square.html
• Read “Pete Wells Has His Knives Out” in The New Yorker (September, 2016), an inside look at the life of one restaurant reviewer:  http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/12/pete-wells-the-new-york-times-restaurant-critic
• [Optional: Read Nick Paumgarten’s essay, “The Most Exclusive Restaurant in America” in The New Yorker (August, 2016), a suspenseful and totally unexpected story: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/29/damon-baehrel-the-most-exclusive-restaurant-in-america]
• Peer Review Intro to Essay 3 (in-class workshop)

Friday, 12/2

• Presentations

• ESSAY 3 DUE

Week 14

Tuesday, 12/6

• Presentations

Friday, 12/9

• Final Portfolio and Final Exam DUE
• Presentations
• Conclusions