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Teaching Food Memoirs

Food is any types of substance that people consume to survive. Eating food as a behavior is so obvious that we humans rarely think about the daily practice. In particular, literary studies has not much paid attention to food while the current media such as television, SNS(social networking service), and magazines are overwhelmed with the gastronomical. In this article, I reconsider the location of food and eating in literature at large through the course I have designed and taught for two semesters. In order to justify the course I opened, I first try to theorize what it means to eat: This is against custom conducted through the process of unfamiliarity, as eating food has been so obvious in human behavior. I then introduce some literary texts in which both British and American writers employ food as a substantial trope to exert a unique ambience. Among others, I argue that current writers examine their discursive subjectivities in food memoirs. Finally, I critically reflect on the course, “Food and Culture,” by articulating the process of how I embarked on the topic, designed the course plan, and managed each class time. Based on the teaching experience, I strongly believe that food becomes a critical discourse to explore literature in particular and culture at large.