Food and Culture 4551WA

Food and Culture SOC 4551WA

Dr Gary Genosko

Tuesday 2:30-5:30pm

RB 3046
This research intensive senior undergraduate seminar explores both foodstuffs and foodways in contemporary cultural, ethical, aesthetic and political contexts. Students are expected to undertake, and reflect upon, independent research into contemporary food issues. This year’s research theme is “Dairy Radicalism.” Our group focus will be on a specific project: “The Politics of Milk in the North.” Our project partner is Nishnawbe Aski Nation.

The readings will bring forward a myriad of issues linking food and culture through multiple intellectual traditions – sociology, philosophy, anthropology, literary criticism, political theory, etc. The readings/films provide intellectual contexts for the development of a term paper and the research project.
Texts

Reading Kit (available through the LU Book Store)

Supplemental materials will be provided by the instructor
Course Requirements

Term paper 3000 words (50%)

Group Research Report (25%)

Personal Diary on Group Project (25%)

Organization of the Class Hours

The first hour will be devoted to a lecture presented by the instructor. The second and third hours will be tutorial classes. The two research groups will meet separately in their respective hours in order to develop the project and communicate with the instructor. A schedule of such meetings will be established in the first weeks of the course. At the end of the term each group will present their final reports before representatives from our project partner and other invited parties.

Overview of Lecture Topics

Jan. 9 Introduction: Learning from McDonalds

Jan 16 McMerde: Bové, Roquefort and Anti-Globalization

Jan 23: The Sign of the Cow: Butter, Margarine and Simulation

Jan 30 Are Fries (Still) French?

Feb 6 Cultures of Coffee

Feb 13 Structures of Meals and Recipes

Feb 19-23 Reading Week

Feb 27 Big Gulp: Eating and Meaning

March 6 Film Screenings

March 13 How to Read a Cookbook

March 20 Food & Writing

March 27 Project Preparation/Rehearsal Day

April 3 Final Project Presentations

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Sociology 4551 WA 2 Dr. Gary Genosko


Readings
Jan 9.

George Ritzer, “The ‘Magical’ World of Consumption: Transforming Nothing into Something,” Berkeley J of Sociology vol 49 (2005): 117-36.

George Ritzer, “Islands of the Living Dead: The Social Geography of McDonaldization,” in McDonaldization: The Reader, ed. G. Ritzer, Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press (Sage), 2006, pp. 32-9. ISBN 1-14129-2600-9
Sangmee Bak, “McDonald’s in Seoul: Food Choices, Identity, and Nationalism,” in Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia, ed. James L. Watson, Stanford: Stanford U Press, 1997, pp. 136-60. ISBN 0804732078
Yunxiang Yan, “Of Hamburger and Social Space: Consuming McDonalds in Beijing,” in The Consumer Revolution in Urban China, ed. Deborah S. Davis, Berkeley: U of California Press, 2002, pp. 201-25. ISBN: 0520216407
Jianying Zha, “McArt, with Small Fries,” in China Pop, New York: The New Press, 1995, pp. 111-14. ISBN 1-56584-249-9
Jan 16

Judit Bodnár, “Roquefort vs Big Mac: Globalization and Its Others,” Arch. Europ. Sociol. XLIV/1 (2003): 133-44.

José Bové, “A Farmer’s International?” New Left Review 12 (Nov-Dec 2001): 89-101.
Matthew Clement, “Rice Imperialism: The Agribusiness Threat to Third World Rice Production,” Public #30 [Eating Things] (2004): 59-67. ISSN 0845-4450
Ian Cook, “New Fruits and Vanity: Symbolic Production in the Global Food Economy,” in From Columbus to ConAgra, ed. A. Bonanno et alia, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1994, pp. 232-48. ISBN 0700606610
Jan 23

Margaret Visser, “Butter – and Something ‘Just as Good’,” in Much Depends on Dinner, Toronto: Macmillan, 1988, pp. 84-114. ISBN 002088515

Roland Barthes, “Operation Margarine,” in Mythologies, trans. A. Lavers, New York: Hill and Wang, 1972, pp. 45-7. ISBN 0374521506
Barry. M. Levenson, It’s Not Nice to Defraud Mother Nature,” in Habeas Codfish: Reflections on Food and the Law, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001, pp. 168-83. ISBN 0299175103
Colin Rynne, “The Twenty-four Hour Market,” in At the Sign of the Cow: The Cork Butter Market: 1770-1924, Cork: The Collins Press, 1998, pp. 52-71. ISBN 1-898256-60-8

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Sociology 4551 WA 3 Dr. Gary Genosko


Jan 30

Roland Barthes, “Steak and Chips,” in Mythologies, trans. A. Lavers, New York: Hill and Wang, 1972, pp. 69-71. ISBN 0374521506

Stéphane Spoiden, “The Betrayal of Moules-frites: This is (Not) Belgium,” in French Food on the Table, On the Page, and in French Culture, eds. L.R. Schehr and Allen S. Weiss, London: Routledge, 2001, pp. 157-69. ISBN 0-415-93628-4
Elisabeth Rozin, “The French Fries,” in The Primal Cheeseburger, New York: Penguin, 1994, pp. 133052. ISBN 0140178430
Eric Schlosser, “Why the Fries Taste Good,” in Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, New York: Harper Perrennial, 2002, pp. 111-31. ISBN 0-06-093845-5
Melissa L. Caldwell, “Domesticating the French Fry: McDonald’s and Consumerism in Moscow,” in The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating: A Reader, eds. J. L. Watson and M. L. Caldwell, Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005, pp. 180-96. ISBN: 0631230939
Feb 6

Bennet A. Weinberg and Bonnie K. Bealer, “Caffeine Culture and Le Fin de Millénaire,” in The World of Caffeine: The Science and Culture of the world’s Most Popular Drug, New York: Routledge, 2001, pp. 197-212. ISBN: 0415927234

William Roseberry, “The Rise of Yuppie Coffees and the Reimagination of Class in the United States,” in Food in the USA: A Reader, ed. Carole M. Counihan, New York: Routledge, 2002, pp. 149-68. ISBN 0-415-93232-7
Benjamin A. Wurgaft, “Starbucks and Rootless Cosmopolitanism,” Gastronomica 3/4 (2003): 71-5.
Steve Penfold, “Eddie Shack was no Tim Horton: Donuts and the Folklore of Mass Culture in Canada,” in Food Nations: Selling Taste in Consumer Societies, eds, W. Belasco and P. Scaranton, New York: Routledge, 2002, pp. 48-66. ISBN 0-415-93077-4
Wolfgang Schivelbusch, “Coffee and the Protestant Ethic,” in Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants, trans. David Jacobson, New York: Pantheon, 1992, pp. 15-19 and 22; 39 and 43-46; 48-9; 51-2; 57 and 59; 62—3; 69, 71-73; 76, 79. ISBN: 067974438X
Feb 13

Georg Simmel, “Sociology of the Meal,” in Simmel on Culture, eds. David Frisby and M. Featherstone, London: Sage, 1997, pp. 130-35. ISBN: 0803986521

Mary Douglas, “Deciphering a Meal,” in Food and Culture: A Reader, eds. Carole Counihan and Penny van Esterik, London: Routledge, 1997, pp. 36-54. ISBN: 0415917107
Mary Douglas, “The Sociology of Bread,” in Bread: Social, Nutritional and Agricultural Aspects of Wheaten Bread, London: Applied Science Publishers, 1975, pp. 7-26. ISBN 0-85334-637-2.

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Sociology 4551 WA 4 Dr. Gary Genosko


A.J. Greimas, “Basil Soup or Construction of an Object of Value,” in Paris School Semiotics, Vol II., A.J Greimas, et alia, Toronto Semiotic Circle Working Papers and Prepublications, Toronto: Victoria University/TSC, 1983, pp. 1-10. No ISBN.
Feb 27

Pierre Bourdieu, “The Habitus and the Space of Life-Styles,” in Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, Cambridge, MA: Harvard U P, 1984, 169-99. ISBN: 0674212770

Doris Witt, “Soul Food: Where the Chitterling Hits the [Primal] Pan,” in Eating Culture, eds. R. Scapp and B. Seitz, Albany: State U of New York Press, 1993, pp. 258-82. ISBN 0-7914-3860-0
Chris Shilling, “Sociable Bodies,” in The Body in Culture, Technology & Society, London: Sage, 2005, pp. 148-72. ISBN 0-7619-7124-6
March 6

Bridget Elliot and Anthony Purdy, “Feasting on Film,” in Foodculture: Tasting Identities and Geographies in Art, ed. B. Fischer, Toronto: YYZ Books, 1999, pp. 89102. ISBN 0-920397-27-1

Lawless, Celia, "Cooking, Community, Culture: A Reading of Como agua para chocolate[Like Water for Chocolate]," in Recipes for Reading: Community, Cookbooks, Stories, Histories, ed. Anne L. Bower. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1997, pp. 216-35.
March 13

Kim Severson, “Does the World Need Another ‘Joy’? Do You?” The New York Times (1 Nov. 2006). http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/dining/01joy.html

Kelly Burke, “A grain of truth and a pinch of salt,” The Sydney Morning Herald (1-2 April 2006): 11.
Joan Reardon, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking: A Near Classic or a Near Miss,” Gastronomica 5/3 (2055): 62-72.
G. Pratt, “How to Cook a Deer in British Columbia: Three Recipes and Eighteen Cookbooks,” BC Studies 119 (1998): 87-95.
Luce Giard, “The Rules of the Art,” in Michel de Certeau, Luce Giard and Pierre Mayol, The Practice of Everyday Life, Vol. 2. Lviving and Cooking, trans. Timothy J. Tomasik, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998, pp. 215-22. ISBN 0-8166-2877-7

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Sociology 4551 WA 5 Dr. Gary Genosko


March 20

Jean-Paul Sartre, “Foods,” in The Writings of Jean-Paul Sartre, vol. 2 Selected Prose, eds. M. Contat and M. Rybalka, trans. R. McCleary, Evanston: Northwestern UP, 1974, pp. 60-3. ISBN 0810107090

Jane Kramer, “The Reporter’s Kitchen: A Recipe for Writing,” in A Slice of Life: Contemporary Writers on Food, ed. Bonnie Marranca, New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2003, pp. 311-23. ISBN 1-58567-472-9
M. F. K. Fisher, “”On Dining Alone” and “A is for Dining Alone,” in The Art of Eating, 50^th Anniversary Edition, New York: John Wiley, 2004, pp. 96-99 and 577-83. ISBN 0-7645-4261-3
Walter Benjamin, “Food,” in Selected Writings, vol 2: 1927-34, trans. R. Livingstone et alia, eds. Michael W. Jennings, et alia, Cambridge: The Belknap Press, 1999, pp. 358-64. ISBN 0-674-94585-9