Course Description

Comparative Literature 4DW

An Incredible, Edible Love: Hunger and Desire in World Literature

 

Course Description

 From the furious feasting of Federico Fellini’s Satyricon through the Judeo-Christian tale of a “forbidden fruit,” poison in Verona, and love, sex, and hunger in the streets of Tangiers and Havana, this course will explore the relationship—often fatal—between food and love, and food and sex; and the experience of hunger both as the physical unavailability of food, as well as the unfulfilled desire to love and be loved. As such, our readings will take into consideration the relationship between sex, food, and feasting, as well as the economic and socio-cultural circumstances that allow for the replacement of food with sex and/or love and vice versa. Throughout the course, we will be challenged to link concepts such as “desire” with dwindling economic conditions, and “hunger” with exile and sexual repression and/or deprivation, ultimately allowing us to expand on and question our understanding of food as sustenance and love as food’s only source.

 Required Texts

Excerpt from William Shakespeare’s, Romeo and Juliet (PDF)

Laura Esquivel. Like Water for Chocolate (Doubleday, 1992)

Atwood, Margaret. The Edible Woman (Bantam Doubleday & Dell, 1998)

Zoe Valdés. Yocandra in the Paradise of Nada: A Novel of Cuba (available as reader)

Mohamed Choukri. For Bread Alone (Perseus Distribution, 2006)

Selected poetry from John Keats, Lord Byron and Carlos Jesús Enríquez (will be available on PDF)

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and Expulsion from the Garden (King James Bible, Genesis, Chapter III (available as a handout)

Excerpt from John Milton’s Paradise Lost (available as PDF)

 

Required Films

 *depending on availability, the films will be on reserve at YRL.

Federico Fellini’s Satyricon (1969) (only clips)

Abdellatif Kechiche’s The Secret of the Grain (2007)

 

Recommended Viewing

 Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding (2001)

Ang Lee’s Eat, Drink, Man, Woman (1994)

Grading

20% Participation (includes attendance)

10% Paper 1 (1-2 page close reading)

20% Paper 2 (4-5 pages)

20% Midterm                                                                       

25% Paper 3 (5-6 pages)

5%   Group Project/Presentations

                                              

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a serious offense.  It can be defined as the representation of someone else’s language or writing as your own.  When you copy whole paragraphs or simply borrow key concepts without giving credit to the original source, you are plagiarizing.  If you plagiarize, you will fail that assignment and be subject to disciplinary actions to be determined by the Dean of Students.  Since one of the objectives of this class is to help you promote independent thinking, you will not be required to do outside research.  However, if you decide to use other materials to help enhance your own ideas, please make sure that you adequately cite your sources.

 

Late Papers and Assignments

For every day that your paper is late, your grade will drop by one-third (i.e. a B paper submitted two days after the deadline will become a C+).  Homework assigned will not be accepted past the deadline, unless you have an excused and properly documented absence.

 

Office Hours

Office hours are there for your benefit.  Please take advantage of them.   I encourage you to come see me about your papers well in advance to avoid the pre-deadline rush.  Please anticipate your needs and make your appointments with me at least three days in advance. 

 

E-mail

I am accessible via e-mail except after 8pm and during the weekends.  If you have questions or concerns that need to be addressed before Tuesday’s class, please let me know before then.  I will not accept electronic copies of papers (and other assignments).  Please make sure that you turn in a hard copy to me on the due date, otherwise the late paper policy will apply.