RHE 309K: The Rhetoric of Eating

Instructor: Melanie Haupt
Unique number: 45025
Time and Place: MWF 10-11am, FAC 9
E-mail: mkhaupt@mail.utexas.edu
Office: PAR 408
Office hours: TBA

Course description: Most of us, if we are lucky, eat every day, several times a day. We eat when we are hungry, bored, depressed, and happy. We eat to commemorate marriages, birthdays, and deaths. And because we are constantly eating, therefore creating a never-ending demand for food, we are bombarded with advertisements for food every day, from celebrity chef-created menus at chain restaurants to infant formula. We worry about how much and what kinds of food will add inches to our waistlines and what we can eat to help remove those same offending inches. We feed our friends and families, and whether we order a pizza or fret over the details of a perfect formal dinner speaks volumes about our relationships with our guests.

How does what we put into our mouths to nourish our bodies and serve others to eat comment upon who we are? What does food have to tell us about our communities, our nations, and our world while simultaneously signaling our gender, race, and class identities? Eating has become a form of public discourse, and in this course, we will examine the messages about what, how, why, and with whom we should eat as they are presented in literature, films, advertisements, television shows, magazines, grocery stores and restaurant reviews in order to better understand the nuances of the argument that “we are what we eat.”

This course is divided into three discrete but related units, which will help us ascertain and appreciate a few of the myriad lines of inquiry into this topic.

Unit One
The Ethics and Morals of Eating
This unit will explore the tension between the rhetorics of mass-produced foods and those of the “buy local” movement. What are the ethical and moral arguments being made within the discourse of food? Who are the intended audiences for these arguments? What assumptions about class, race, and gender are embedded within these arguments? How and why are local eating communities formed and what are their goals and intents? In this unit, students will write a 5-7 page rhetorical analysis relating to the concept of eating as a community practice.

Unit Two
Eating and the Body
This unit will engage in the rhetoric of personal eating and how it applies to the concept and presentation of the body. We will analyze the arguments surrounding the “obesity epidemic,” as well as weight-loss materials and narratives of anorexia and bulimia. In this unit, students will write a 5-7 page rhetorical analysis relating to the concept of eating as a private matter.

Unit Three
Eating as Entertainment
For the final third of the class, students will engage with labor theory and the work of “professional eaters” such as celebrity chefs, restaurant critics, and competitive eaters. What are the rhetorical differences between Gordon Ramsey and Anthony Bourdain? Who are the intended audiences for Paula Deen and Rachel Ray? Emeril Lagasse and Jamie Oliver? What sorts of arguments are made about who we are and where we live based on the restaurant reviews we read in our local paper? Who is working behind the scenes to produce the food that makes it onto our tables? In this unit, students will write a 5-7 page argument related the concept of eating as consumption.

Course requirements
Students will write three 5-7-page papers, each revised and submitted once. Students will be required to actively engage with the class materials and discussions; write several blog entries based on class discussion, reading assignments, and research done outside of class; participate in a group photo essay project; and contribute meaningfully to class discussion.

Grading
Essay 1: 25% (first submission 10%, second submission 15%)
Essay 2: 25% (first submission 10%, second submission 15%)
Essay 3: 25% (first submission 10%, second submission 15%)
Blogs: 15%
Homework, quizzes, and in-class writing assignments: 10%

Textbooks
Everything's An Argument (Fourth Edition), Lunsford, ISBN #0312447493
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals , Pollan, ISBN #0143038583
A Cook’s Tou r, Bourdain, ISBN # 0060012781
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle , Kingsolver (available at BookWoman)
Course packet from Jenn’s Copies, 2200 Guadalupe (underneath the Church of Scientology)

Course Policies
Papers: For each paper, you must turn in on time a good faith polished draft and a final revised version. I will comment extensively on your first submission and return it to you. You then revise for the second submission. To complete each final version, you must consider the comments you received on your first draft thoughtfully, ask questions if you have them, and address every comment I made on your paper. You must also go beyond my comments to make your own improvements based on our class discussions and your interaction with your peers, the Undergraduate Writing Center, and me if your goal is to improve your draft substantially.

Late Assignments and Drafts: Papers and other out-of-class assignments will be turned in at the time they are due. If you cannot attend class on the date an assignment is due, please discuss the problem with me. However, late work will be penalized, the extent of which depends on the assignment’s lateness—generally, one letter grade per day. There is no makeup of in-class work. If you miss class, please do not email me requesting a recap of the day’s discussion or an opportunity to make up any in-class work.

Absences: Per DWR policy, students may miss 6 MWF classes, but will fail upon the 7th absence. Please note that the only excused absences at the University of Texas are for religious holy days and military service. Please do not ask me to excuse absences due to travel, illness, or family matters; I will not excuse them.

Tardiness: Please come to class on time. (Feel free to arrive early, even.) I will take attendance every class period. If you have not arrived by the time I have finished taking attendance and closed the classroom door, you will not be admitted. No exceptions. Every third tardy counts as an absence.

Office hours: I will be in my office during the times posted above and will notify you of unavoidable changes and cancellations. Please come talk with me if you have any questions, comments, or criticisms. Whether you‘re having trouble understanding a text, or you’re suffering from writer’s block, I can help. Ultimately, however, it is your responsibility to seek out help.

Respect for the intellectual community: You will be part of an intellectual community, formed by yourself and your classmates this semester. I therefore ask the following of you:

Please bring all materials to each session. This includes the assigned reading material for the session, lecture notes, and of course a writing implement. If you arrive to the session without the appropriate materials, I will probably ask you to leave, and you will be marked absent for the session.

Please turn off all your electronic devices (i.e. CELL PHONES) before class starts. NO text messaging during class.

You will engage in dialogues, discussions and debates with your classmates. You might frequently disagree with them, and such disagreements will, I hope, become a productive and interesting part of our class experience. However, please remain civil and respectful to all of your classmates (and to me) at all times.

Calendar of Assignments
(may be subject to change)

Mon Jan 14 Course overview. What is rhetoric?
Homework: Everything’s an Argument, Ch. 1; set up blog by next class period and email me the URL.

Wed Jan 16 Discussion of reading, In-class rhetoric writing assignment
Homework: Everything’s an Argument, Ch. 2&3

Fri Jan 18 Homework: Everything’s an Argument, Ch. 4&5

Mon Jan 21 No class; Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday

Wed Jan 23 Recap of intro to rhetoric
Quiz over Ch. 1-5 of Everything’s An Argument
Unit One: The Ethics and Morals of Eating
Homework: Read O’Neill, Arthur and Slatkin, Hawthorne, Pollan (packet).

Fri Jan 25 Group work followed by discussion of the ethical and moral concerns of eating in America
Brainstorming, idea mapping
Homework: Visit Whole Foods Market downtown, post a rhetorical analysis of the space to your blog by midnight Sunday (consult with EaA, p. 104 for tips on how to write a rhetorical analysis).

Mon Jan 28 Discuss analyses of Whole Foods Market
Homework: The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Introduction through Chapter 5; EaA, Chapter 6, “Structuring Arguments”

Wed Jan 30 Discuss The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Read: The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Ch. 6-10

Fri Feb 1 Discuss The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Read: The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Ch. 11-14

Mon Feb 4 Discuss The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Read: Read "Edible Austin"; EaA, Chapter 7, “Arguments of Fact”

Wed Feb 6 Guest speaker, Marla Camp, editor of "Edible Austin"

Fri Feb 8 Discuss "Edible Austin", go over Paper One assignment.
Read: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, pp. 1-69

Mon Feb 11 Discuss Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Read: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, pp. 70-141; EaA, Chapter 8, “Arguments of Definition”

Wed Feb 13 Discuss Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Read: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, pp. 142-218

Fri Feb 15 Discuss Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Read: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, pp. 219-291

Mon Feb 18 Discuss Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Read: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, pp. 292-354; EaA, Chapter 9, “Evaluation”

Wed Feb 20 Wrap up discussion of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Homework: Complete Paper One, bring three copies to class on Friday.

Fri Feb 22 Peer Reviews: Paper One
Homework: Revise Paper One

Mon Feb 25 PAPER ONE DUE
Unit 2: Eating and the Body
Obesity epidemic, weight loss rhetoric, eating disorders
Read: Volk, “Obesity: An Overblown Epidemic?”; “An Epidemic of Obesity Myths” (packet); National Action Against Obesity website (be sure to watch a few of MeMe Roth's various appearances)

Wed Feb 27 Discussion: Obesity epidemic

Fri Feb 29 Discussion: Obesity epidemic. How do we connect the study of rhetoric to the obesity epidemic, specifically? In what way do we see rhetoric at play here?

Mon Mar 3 Paper One returned, mini-workshop
Wrapping up obesity epidemic, rhetorics of dieting
Homework: Read Weight Watchers magazine, be prepared to report upon it on Wednesday; EaA, Chapter 11, “Proposals”

Wed Mar 5 Reports and discussion of Weight Watchers magazine
Rhetorics of dieting segueing into eating disorders
Read: Butzow, Miles (packet)

Fri Mar 7 Discussion of Butzow and Miles

Mon Mar 10 Spring break

Wed Mar 12 Spring break

Fri Mar 14 Spring break

Mon Mar 17 Paper One revision due, go over Paper Two assignment
Read: EaA, Chapter 12, “Style in Arguments”

Wed Mar 19 Thin (screening)

Fri Mar 21 Thin (screening)

Mon Mar 24 Finish Thin (if necessary) and discuss.
Homework: Read and prepare a brief presentation on the ana/mia websites linked on the course website
Read: EaA, Chapter 13, “Humor in Arguments”

Wed Mar 26 Presentations on/discussion of websites
Homework: Complete Paper Two, bring three copies to class on Friday.

Fri Mar 28 Peer Reviews: Paper Two
Homework: Revise Paper Two

Mon Mar 31 Unit Three: Eating as Entertainment
Read: A Cook’s Tour, pp. 1-51; EaA, Chapter 14, “Visual Arguments”

Wed Apr 2 PAPER TWO DUE
Discuss A Cook’s Tour
Read: A Cook’s Tour, pp. 52-98

Fri Apr 4 Discuss A Cook’s Tour
Read: A Cook’s Tour, pp. 99-135

Mon Apr 7 Wrap up discussion of A Cook’s Tour, discuss celebrity chefs
Paper Two returned
Read: EaA, Chapter 15, “Presenting Arguments”

Wed Apr 9 UWC Revision workshop

Fri Apr 11 Restaurants
Read: Foster, Ranhofer, Waters (packet)

Mon Apr 14 Discuss rhetorical space of restaurants
Paper Two REVISIONS DUE
Read: Sedaris, Claiborne, Baker, Walsh, Bruni, Amster-Burton (packet); EaA, Chapter 16, “What Counts as Evidence”

Wed Apr 16 Discuss readings
Read: Selected restaurant reviews

Fri Apr 18 Discuss restaurant reviews

Mon Apr 21 Crazy Legs Conti (screening)
Read: EaA, Chapter 17, “Fallacies of Argument:

Wed Apr 23 Crazy Legs Conti (screening)
Read: Harder, Reynolds, Fagone (packet)

Fri Apr 25 Watch Nathan’s Annual Hot Dog eating contest, discuss competitive eating
Homework:

Mon Apr 28 PAPER THREE PEER REVIEWS

Wed Apr 30 Paper conferences
Fri May 2 Paper conferences

FRIDAY MAY 9: PAPER THREE DUE