From the ancient Roman banquet recounted in Petronius’s Satyricon to Dacia Maraini’s twentieth-century poem “Devour me too,” the most famous Italian authors have persistently turned to food in their writing. If a gastronomic theme seems like an obvious choice to attract readers, the truth is that representations of food often contain complex and profound messages that go far beyond taste. Departing from a variety of texts and films that span from the classical to the contemporary, we’ll work to understand how food is used in literature to express everything from religious faith to political strategy to social values. Our goal will be to interpret and interrogate the sources, in an effort to understand how Italian authors have used the universal familiarity and direct intimacy of food to communicate with their audiences, and to determine how we can use similar tactics to become stronger and more effective communicators ourselves.

Required Texts:
All texts and materials will be provided in digital format.

Course Objectives and Requirements:
This course fulfills the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement. Our primary goal is to develop and hone our skills as active, critical readers and analytical writers. To this end, students will be expected to thoroughly read all assigned texts, attend class regularly, participate in class discussion, and complete all written assignments and revisions. Peer-response groups will play a central role in the course, as students will read and critique each other’s work.

Class Participation & Attendance:
Argumentative essay writing is about presenting your ideas while engaging in a discussion with other scholars. In-class discussions, questions and debates are part of the process of developing your critical voice and ideas in a supportive and challenging setting. In addition, each student will be responsible for leading discussion once during the semester. This will take the form of selecting a passage from that day’s reading and preparing a set of questions and comments to start off our conversation.

Writing Assignments:
Following R&C guidelines, the writing requirement for this class is a minimum of 32 pages. You will write two essays: one 5-6-page paper revised to 7 pages, and one 7-8-page paper revised to 10 pages. You will also complete several shorter writing assignments that are designed to prepare you for our discussions and for longer essays by encouraging careful critical thinking about our readings.

This course satisfies the second half or the “B” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement.
Prerequisite: Successful completion of the “A” portion of the Reading & Composition requirement or its equivalent. Students may not enroll in nor attend R1B/R5B courses without completing this prerequisite.

Due to the high demand for R&C courses we monitor attendance very carefully. Attendance is mandatory the first two weeks of classes, this includes all enrolled and wait listed students. If you do not attend all classes the first two weeks you may be dropped. If you are attempting to add into this class during weeks 1 and 2 and did not attend the first day, you will be expected to attend all class meetings thereafter and, if space permits, you may be enrolled from the wait list