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Academic Year 2003/2004


Culinary Scapes: Food and Race in Asian America
AMST 343 SP

Crosslistings:
EAST 341

This course is a comparative study of narratives of food, nation and community in Asian American cultural production. Throughout the course, we will grapple with a series of questions to provide us with ways to understand how food is inextricably linked with race and ethnicity in Asian America. Why do people always think about Asian food when they think about Asians, and how do we understand the complicated question that seems to burn on everyone's lips, "Do Asians really eat dogs?" Because Asian American foodways feature in films, fiction and enthnographic studies, we will look at a range of different forms of cultural production as a way to explore how individual authors and communities define their ethnic/racial and gendered identities in a culinary context, and we will also look at ways that food provides different forms of sustenance--psychic, emotional, monetary to different communities and how that is thematized in cultural production. Readings in the course will be juxtaposed with theoretical work on the consumption and production of food.

MAJOR READINGS

YEAR OF THE DRAGON, Frank Chin
WE ARE WHAT WE EAT, Donna Gabaccia
AN INVITATION TO INDIAN COOKING, Madhur Jaffrey
PASTRIES, Bharti Kirchner
MONSOON DIARY, Shoba Narayan
MY YEAR OF MEATS, Ruth Ozeki
THE BOOK OF SALT, Monique Truong
THE BARBARIANS ARE COMING, David Wong Louie
WILD MEAT AND THE BULLY BURGERS, Lois Ann Yamanaka

COURSE FORMAT: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA EAST    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE

SECTION 01

Instructor(s): Mannur,Anita H.   
Times: .M..... 01:10PM-04:00PM;     Location: BTFDA413
Reserved Seats:    (Total Limit: 15)
SR. major: 4   Jr. major: 4
SR. non-major: 3   Jr. non-major: 2   SO: 2   FR: 0

Special Attributes:
Curricular Renewal:    Reading Non-Verbal Texts, Writing
Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-19-2004


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