Course Catalog

When someone tells you, You are what you eat, what do they actually mean? How does food shape our identity? And is our personal identity tied to our sense of belonging to a culture or country? In this class, we will look at the interconnections between food, identity and culture. As a theoretical basis, we will read essays on cultural studies, food studies, autobiography, and narrative identity. We will focus especially on the relation between food and the self, also concerning questions of gender and ethnicity, personal and cultural identities, as well as memory and the senses. After familiarizing ourselves with these topics, we will apply what we have learned by reading and analyzing a food memoir Madhur Jaffreys Climbing the Mango Trees (2005). We might additionally try our hand at personal life writing in a creative session, if desired.