21W.730-4 Writing on Contemporary Issues: Food for Thought: Writing and Reading about the Cultures of Food, Fall 2008
Author(s)
Boiko, Karen
Alternative Title
Writing on Contemporary Issues: Food for Thought: Writing and Reading about the Cultures of Food
Date Issued
December 2008
Abstract
"What people do with food is an act that reveals how they construe the world." - Marcella Hazan, The Classic Italian Cookbook If you are what you eat, what are you? Food is at once the stuff of life and a potent symbol; it binds us to the earth, to our families, and to our cultures. In this class, we explore many of the fascinating issues that surround food as both material fact and personal and cultural symbol. We read essays by Toni Morrison, Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry, and others on such topics as family meals, eating as an "agricultural act" (Berry), slow food, and food's ability to awaken us to "our own powers of enjoyment" (M. F. K. Fisher). We will also read Pollan's most recent book, In Defense of Food, and discuss the issues it raises as well as its rhetorical strategies. Assigned essays will grow out of memories and the texts we read, and may include personal narrative as well as essays that depend on research. Revision of essays and workshop review of writing in progress are an important part of the class. Each student will make one oral presentation in this class.
Subjects
food
hunger
good calories
lipid hypothesis
diet
nutrients
unhappy meals
nutritionism
cuisine
carbohydrates
fats
proteins
water
plants
animals
fungus or fermented products like alcohol
human cultures
hunting and gathering
farming
ranching
fishing
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing
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