LITERATURE AND POPULAR CULTURE: THE WAY WE EAT

On Food Revolution,
Jaime Oliver, a British chef, demonstrated to television viewers the challenges
of food production and consumption in American school cafeterias. Oliver
revealed the deeply entrenched cultural and political codes surrounding food
and health in the United States. His task, to educate the American public on our
ideology of food, was an enormous undertaking as he challenged deeply
entrenched norms from table manners to the politics of the American food distribution
and agricultural industries.  While
Oliver facilitated substantial changes to the British school cafeteria system
and children’s access to healthy meals, was he successful in facilitating
change or re-vision our food habits?

In all cultural groups, food traditions are deeply encoded
with social and moral meaning. Historically food has been utilized to regulate
and control physical and intellectual nourishment. The literature that we will
study this semester reflects this tendency as eating signifies and legitimizes
a sense of self, distinguishing us from others who practice different
foodways.  In this class, we will study
the literary, social and cultural history (in fiction, non-fiction, essays and
memoirs) in relationship to food in order to understand the ways in which food
has functioned as a celebration and an agent of cultural identification and
often times, oppression.

Requirements: Attendance is mandatory. In English 481(W)
while there may be a few lectures, students are expected to be prepared with
reading group notes each class period and to actively contribute to class
discussions. Students will work in groups of four to five and take turns
leading the discussions. If you are absent, clearly you will be missed.

This is a writing intensive course.  My philosophy of teaching writing is that one
must write often and quite a lot to become a better writer and to understand
the literature and subjects we study on a deeper level.  As a writer, it’s also important to express
your voice or strong opinion about the subject matter.  In all writing work for this course, you will
use “I”.   Students will write four short
reading responses in letterform (making connections between text and self/experience),
two short essays (one can be an extension of a reading response) and one substantial
research paper.  In class, students work
in peer groups for feedback on drafts and in conferences with the professor.
MLA formatting is a required for all essays in this class (pick up a formatting
guide). In addition, there will be informal writing assignments and in-class
writing.  Students will give one short
presentation that will enhance our reading and one longer presentation on the
final research project.

Texts: Food and
Culture: A Reader, Third Edition
edited by Carole Counihan and Penny Van
Esterik. Second Nature: A Gardener’s
Education
by Michael Pollan. The
Edible Woman
by Margaret Atwood.  The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.  Fast
Food Nation
by Eric Schlosser.  All
books will be available at Revolution Books–2625 South King Street.  944-3106.  Additional readings will be posted on the
Laulima course website.