Food & Identity in the French & Francophone World

Professor Clémentine Fauré-Bellaïche cfaure@brandeis.edu; Shiffman, office 212. Office hours: Monday, 12:00-1:00 pm; Wednesday, 12:00-1:00pm.

Course Description: The French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss once said that food was “good to think with.” How does food produce meaning? Are we defined, individually and collectively, by what we eat? Is there a politics of food? This course will apprehend French and Francophone culture by thinking with food – its preparation and consumption, its connections with identity, with social distinction and power, but also with art. We will examine a variety of materials:

press articles, food writing pieces, films (Gabriel Axel, Abdellatif Kechiche, Jean-Luc Godard), literary texts (Maryse Condé, Roland Barthes, Marcel Proust, Colette), and articles by major cultural historians of food (Priscilla Ferguson, Jean-Louis Flandrin, Massimo Montanari). Course and discussions in French.Success in this four-credit course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (readings, papers, discussion sections, preparation for exams, etc.).

Book (available at the Brandeis bookstore; all the other materials (extracts, press articles, critical & theoretical essays will be available on Latte):- Maryse Condé, Victoire, les saveurs et les mots, Gallimard, Paris, 2008

Films (available on Latte):- Le Festin de Babette, Gabriel Axel (1987)- Vatel, Roland Joffé (2000)- Marie-Antoinette, Sofia Coppola (2006)- À bout de souffle, Jean-Luc Godard (1960)- Ratatouille (2007)- Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen (2011)- Un été à la Goulette, Férid Boughedir (1996)- L’Aile ou la cuisse, Claude Zidi (1976)

Requirements:- Participation will count for your final grade (25%), and

is crucial to the success of the course. Participation includes: coming to class prepared to discuss the

material; taking an active part in class discussion; being present and on time (exceptions apply for illness, sport, family emergency, and religious holidays.) If you cannot attend a class, please email me your justification.

- 1 group oral presentation (by pairs) – the list of topics for the oral presentations will be handed out in class (35%). This presentation is conceived as both a real work of research and a group project: please consult with me before your presentation so that I can suggest you primary and secondary sources.

- 2 papers (4 to 6 pages, 45%).

Course objectives and learning outcomes: - Writing essays developing personal thesis statements

and interpretations; supporting those statements through relevant textual and visual analysis; using primary and secondary sources effectively; developing a strong ability to organize and structure your arguments.

- Improving your writing skills in French through two short papers going through different stages of revision.

- Demonstrating an analytical grasp of the cultural connections between food, social distinction, gender, power, and collective and individual identity in French and Francophone culture; making interdisciplinary connections between literature, art, film, and popular culture; understanding important social aspects of contemporary France; being able to read and discuss critical and theoretical essays on the subject.

Guidelines for submission of written work:

- Word-process all written work: use Times News Roman font, 12, double space. Number your pages and staple them together. At the top of the first page include your name and the date. For each essay, you need to create a title that goes in line with your thesis.

- Proofread and spell-check before bringing any paper to class.Each assignment should be printed and ready for submission at the beginning of the class.

Food & Frenchness, Cuisine & Art

January 10Introduction

January 11 Film: Le Festin de Babette, Gabriel Axel

January 15 No class

Food as Spectacle: How France Invented Haute Cuisine

January 17Film: Vatel, Roland Joffé

January 18

Food Writing: La Varenne, Le Cuisinier françois (extracts)Cultural history: Jean-Marie Apostolidès, Le Roi-Machine (extracts)

Food & Social Distinction

January 22 Sociology: Norbert Élias, La Civilisation des Moeurs (extract)

January 24Sociology: Pierre Bourdieu, La Distinction (extract)

January 25 - 'Let Them Eat Cake': Champagne, Pastry & Aristocratic Style Film: Marie-Antoinette, Sofia Coppola

January 29 Cultural history: Jennifer Davis, “Masters of Disguise – Artifice & Nature in Culinary Aesthetics,” in Defining Culinary Authority – The Transformation of Cooking in France, 1650 – 1830 (extract)

The French Politics & Symbolics of Bread

January 31 Novel: Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (extract)

February 1Novel: Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (extract)

The Invention of Gastronomy & The Modern Culture of The Restaurant:

February 5Brillat-Savarin, La physiologie du goût (extracts)

February 7Food History: Priscilla Ferguson, Accounting for Taste (extracts)

February 8Food & The Realist Novel - Balzac & Food (extracts)

February 12Food and the Realist Novel: Balzac & Food (extracts)

Bourgeois Appetites in the Nineteenth Century:

February 14Novel: Émile Zola, Le Ventre de Paris (extracts)

February 15Novel: Émile Zola, Le Ventre de Paris (extracts)

"Le café est le parlement du peuple" (Balzac) - Cafés & French Sociability

February 26Film: À bout de souffle, Jean-Luc Godard

February 28 Cultural History: "Le café," in Lieux de Mémoire, éd. Pierre Nora ; "Boissons coloniales et essor du sucre" in Histoire de l'alimentation, éd. Massimo Montanari.

March 1Film: Midnight in Paris, Woody AllenPress articles: “Je suis en terrasse” – How France celebrated its café culture in the wake of the terrorist attacks on November 13, 2015.

The Sense of A Place - Food, Memory, and The Terroir

March 5Food writing: Curnonsky, La France gastronomique. Guide des merveilles culinaires et des bonnes auberges françaises (extracts)

March 7Novel: À la recherche du temps perdu, Marcel Proust (extracts)

March 8

Film: Les Saveurs du Palais, Christian Vincent (2012)

March 12 Colette, Gourmandise, and The Terroir: (extracts)

The Mystique of Wine

March 14Documentary: Mondovino, Jonathan Nossiter

March 15Cultural criticism: Roland Barthes, "Le vin et le lait," in Mythologies

Food & the Empire - Cooking as Bricolage & MétissageMarch 19Memoirs: Maryse Condé, Victoire, les saveurs et les mots

March 21Memoirs: Maryse Condé, Victoire, les saveurs et les mots

March 22Memoirs: Maryse Condé, Victoire, les saveurs et les mots

March 26Memoirs: Maryse Condé, Victoire, les saveurs et les mots

March 28 Memoirs: Maryse Condé, Victoire, les saveurs et les mots

March 29Anthropology: Michel de Certeau, Habiter, cuisiner (extracts)

Food, Religion, and Minority Identity

April 9Food cultural history: Massimo Montanari, La chère et l'esprit - histoire de la culture alimentaire chrétienne (extracts) ; Jean-

Louis Flandrin, Massimo Montanari, Histoire de l'alimentation (extracts)

April 11Film: Un été à la Goulette, Férid Boughedir (1996)

April 12Press Articles: “Le halal à la cantine, un fantasme loin de la réalité,” in Le Monde, March 10, 2012; “Cantines scolaires : la laïcité dans l’assiette,” in Le Point, March 20, 2015

April 16Film: La graine et le mulet, Abdellatif Kechiche (2007)

French Cuisine, Globalization, and “Malbouffe”

April 18Film: L’Aile ou la cuisse, Claude Zidi (1976)

April 19Documentary: Ces fromages qu'on assassine, Joël Santoni (2007)

April 23 Press Articles: Périco Lagasse, “Vive la cuisine française de souche,” in Marianne, March 21, 2015

ConclusionApril 26 Film: Ratatouille

Academic Integrity:Academic integrity is central to the mission of educational excellence at Brandeis University.  Each student is expected to turn in work completed independently, except when assignments specifically authorize collaborative effort. It is not acceptable to use the words or ideas of another person--

be it a world-class philosopher or your classroom partner--without proper acknowledgement of that source. This means that you must use notes and quotation marks to indicate the source of any phrases, sentences, paragraphs or ideas found in published volumes, on the internet, or created by another person.

Violations of University policies on academic integrity, described in Section 3 of Rights and Responsibilities, may result in failure in the course or on the assignment, and could end in suspension from the University.  Remember that tutors, even those sanctioned by Brandeis University, are not authorized to do work for you.  If you have questions on the type of help you may receive, please ask me before you seek help from someone. If you are working in a group that I have authorized, I will expect your answers to resemble those of your partners. Otherwise, I expect you to do your work separately from your friends, classmates, family members, and so on. If you have questions on the type of help you may receive, please ask me before you seek help from someone. Remember, too, that the work you do for this course cannot be used for another course, and you cannot recycle in this class work that you have produced for another course.

Students with Disabilities:If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately. Retroactive accommodations cannot be provided.