Food, Glorious Food - NSC00005I

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Module summary

Food is a central area of life and for life; it is not just about sustenance, but is tied to deep social structures in the form of identity, language, and culture. As a consequence, food provides us a rich and multifaceted topic area through which we can explore the diversity of social meanings.

This module provides an interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary analysis of food. This analysis is intended to provide students with A) an appreciation of the breadth of knowledge possible of seemingly small areas and B) an intellectual flexibility coming from being able to apply different disciplinary lenses to the same topic.

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 1 2025-26
B	Semester 2 2025-26

Module aims

The module is aimed at providing students with a broad base of knowledge of food drawn from culture, literature, and linguistics. In order to unite these different disciplinary takes, the module is united around a small number of food items. The course starts with bread, then moves on to chocolate, and finishes with meat. With each of these foods, questions such as the following will be explored -

Culture

What is the history of the cultivation/production of this food?

Has there been a change in the cultural meanings of the food from history?

What are the politics surrounding this food? What major issues or controversies is this food a part of?

Literature

How do writers use the cultural meanings and symbolism of specific foods to enrich storytelling?

How do scenes of consumption reveal characters' personalities and their place within social dynamics?

How might foods produce a sense of attraction or revulsion in fiction?

Linguistics

What does this food suggest about language contact as a driver of lexical variation and change?

How does variation in terms related to this food relate to regional variation (national varieties of English, local dialects) and/or social variation (language and gender/social class/age etc.)?

How is this food used and described on restaurant menus in York and how does this reflect society/culture/history?

Module learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this module, students will be able to

• Demonstrate an ability to apply different disciplinary lenses to a topic

• Deliver a compelling academic presentation

• Identify the benefits and difficulties of interdisciplinarity

• Show a critical awareness of food as a topical area

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Oral presentation/seminar/exam	100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Oral presentation/seminar/exam	100.0

Module feedback

The assessment for this module is supported by formative meetings with course tutors to discuss the presentation in the weeks leading to it. Following the presentation, students will receive written feedback within 20 days.

Indicative reading

A week-by-week reading list is provided at the start of the course. Below are materials that would be useful for the different aspects of the course.

For culture:

Clapp, J., Food, Polity 2012.

Nestle, M., Food Politics, University of California Press 2013.

Patel, R., Stuffed and Starved, Granta Books 2013.

Van Tulleken, C. Ultra-processed people. WW Norton, 2023.

For literature:

J. Michelle Coghlan (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Food, Cambridge University Press, 2020.

Gitanjali G. Shahani (ed.), Food and Literature, Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Amy Tigner and Allison Carruth (eds.), Literature and Food Studies, Routledge, 2018.

For linguistics:

On Sociolinguistics: Wodak, R, B. Johnstone & P. Kerswill (2010, Eds) The SAGE Handbook of Sociolinguistics. Sage Publications Limited

On Linguistic Landscaping: Blackwood, R., S. Tufi & W. Amos (2024, Eds) The Bloomsbury Handbook of Linguistic Landscapes. Bloomsbury Publishers.

On language and food more specifically:

Jankowski, B & S. Tagliamonte. (2019). Supper or Dinner? English World-Wide, Volume 40, Issue 2, Jun 2019, p. 170 - 201 https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.00027.jan
Jurafsky, D. (2014). The language of food: A linguist reads the menu. WW Norton & Company.