Food and Feasting in Popular Culture, Literature and Film

AN32004BA 08

FOOD AND FEASTING IN POPULAR CULTURE, LITERATURE AND FILM

SECOND YEAR B.A.

Wed. 16-17.40; XIV.

URECZKY ESZTER

OFFICE HOURS:

Thu 10-12 (105)

email:

The primary aim of the course is to introduce students to the interdisciplinary discourse of food studies within cultural studies by reading popular cultural, visual, cinematic and literary texts on the representation of food, feasting and fasting in cultural history and contemporary culture. Topics and subject areas to be discussed include representations of cooking, eating, gastroception, "foodies" and consumerism in contemporary popular culture: literary gastro blogs, cookery shows and other diet and gastro shows, the culturally constructed notions of the normal and the pathological as well as eating habits and bodies with reference to first world food cult. The second part of the course deals with the representation of food on screen, that is, food movies, and it is divided into subsections based on genre (food documentaries: the cultural critique of the food industry) or typical Leitmotifs such as gastronomy as cultural translation and biography; food, perversion and the grotesque body.

REQUIREMENTS:

Presence at classes: no more than three absences are allowed. In the case of a longer absence (either due to illness, or official leave), the tutor and the student will come to an agreement of how to solve the problem.

Assigned reading: The seminar format and the reading requirements suppose that the assigned texts are read for the classes. Tests on the assigned readings can be expected at each seminar (plot-related questions in the case of fiction and film). The result of these tests contributes to the seminar grade (“minor tests”: 10%). If you fail more than three such tests, your seminar is a failure (the grade is a one). You’ll be granted, though, one chance to make up for the failure of these minor tests as agreed with your course tutor.

Reader’s journal: the student is required to keep a reader’s journal in a separate notebook, recording opinions, impressions and raising questions. The journals are to be in class, and to be used for facilitating discussions.

Participation in classroom discussions: the student is expected to take part in classroom discussions, and this activity contributes to the final seminar grades by 20% of the overall achievement. (The reader’s journal can be of great help in this respect.)

Presentation: every student will give a short presentation (10-15 minutes or so) on a

theoretical text related to one of the discussed topics. The presenter has to prepare a carefully editedhandout for the group. The presentation cannot be completely read out, the student can of course check his/her notes while presenting. The student has to consult with the instructor one week before the presentation and show her the handout (20%).

Endterm test: an objective test on the works discussed during the term (50%). The test must be written at the time scheduled in the syllabus. Failing to do so will count as course failure, and only one re-sit test will be scheduled to make up for the failure. The test will have a pass limit (60%): failing the test will count as course failure, and only one re-sit test will be scheduled to make up for the failure.

Students should be aware that their English proficiency also contributes to their grade.

Grading Policy

Course components
minor tests / 10%
presentation / 20%
classroom discussion / 20%
objective test / 50%
total / 100%
Grades
87-100% / 5
75-86% / 4
63-74% / 3
51-62% / 2
0-50 % / 1

TEXTS and FILMS: available in the Institute Library or online, handouts.

Week / Date / Topic
1 / 14/02 / Acquiring a taste for food studies: orientation & introduction
Food for thought: food politics in contemporary global culture
Okja (Joon-ho Bong, 2017)
2 / 21/02 / The apple of her eye: French cuisine and gastro-biography
Babette's Feast (Gabriel Axel, 1987)
Presentation:
Margaret H. McFadden. “Gendering the Feast: Women, Spirituality, and Grace inThree Food Films.” Reel Food: Essays on Food and Film.
3 / 28/02 / There is no such thing as a free lunch: Indian epistolary film & love
The Lunchbox(Ritesh Batra, 2013)
Presentation:
Michael A. Di Giovine and Ronda L. Brulotte: “Food and Foodways as Cultural Heritage.” Edible Identities: Food as Cultural Heritage.
4 / 07/03 / Life is a bowl of cherries: tradition and change in modern Japan
Sweet Bean (Naomi Kawase, 2016)
Presentation:
“The History of Hanami”

5 / 14/03 / That's the way the cookie crumbles: Consuming late-Socialism
Veri az Ördög a feleségét (András Ferenc, 1977)
Presentation:
Győri Zsolt: “Diskurzus, hatalom és ellenállás a késő Kádár-kor filmszociográfiáiban”
6 / 21/03 / Love is not always a piece of cake: class and sexuality in the kitchen
I am Love (Luca Guadagnino, 2009)
Presentation:
Pierre Bourdieu: “Distinction: A Social Critique ofthe Judgement of Taste”
7 / 28/04 / Nutty as a fruitcake: food, drugs and Victorian femininity
Alice in Wonderland(Tim Burton, 2010)
Presentation:
Ruth Y. Jenkins. “Imagining the Abject in Kingsley, MacDonald, andCarroll: Disrupting Dominant Values and CulturalIdentity in Children’s Literature.” Victorian Children’s Literature: Experiencing Abjection, Empathy, and the Power of Love.
8 / 04/04 / No class (consultation week)
9 / 11/04 / Having a bun in the oven: cannibalism and reproductive anxiety
Little Otik (Jan Svankmajer, 2000)
Presentation:
Anna Kérchy: “Perverted Postmodern Pinocchios: Cannibalistic
Vegetal-Children as Ecoterrorist Agents ofMaternal Imagination”
10 / 18/04 / Like watching sausage getting made: wellness for grotesque bodies
Hotel Splendide (Terence Gross, 2000)
Presentation:
Deborah Lupton: “The Asceticism/Consumption Dialectic.” Food, the Bodyand the Self.
11 / 25/05 / What’s eating you? Forgetting and melancholia
Pál Adrienn (Kocsis Ágnes, 2010)
Presentation:
Sigmund Freud: “Mourning and Melancholia”
12 / 02/05 / Singing for the supper: end-term test

Evaluation: in my office hours.