How does X mean?

You have now read 3 essays that could fulfill our research assignment. The Bordo piece uses primary texts to build a case for how media and advertising images and rhetoric coalesce to create an idealized, unrealistic relationship with food. The Shea article "New Grub Street" uses current journalism texts to report on and speculate about the recent trend of seeing food as an ethical matter, then goes on to suggest how his colleagues might address and render the rhetoric of such texts to benefit their audiences. 

I think the Victory Gardens essay shows us how we don't have to have a political or occupational agenda to frame and perform a rhetorical inquiry. 

Thinking about your own research project, what kind of texts could you explore and analyze in your quest to figure out how an idea or meaning obtains in our culture? Will the purpose of your own paper be political, academic/discovery, occupational? Discuss your ideas and possible texts for the research project.

Thinking about the Comparative Analysis

I consider "The New Grub Street" and "Hunger as Ideology" to be both primary and secondary sources for this class. We can read the texts as primary sources by examining the rhetoric and analyzing the arguments, and we can also see how Bordo and Shea make connections and analyze the texts of others. We learn a way to read other primary texts from them. The texts also may serve as a kind of model for the essays we will produce for the comparative analysis and the research project.

Discuss how the two authors both analyze rhetoric AND employ their own rhetorical strategies. Your posts should be thoughtful and run 500-750 words.

Time and time again

How have the debates changed over the years concerning meat and vegetarian diets? Do you see resonances among the texts? How has the "merry war" described in the NYTimes 1907 article escalated or cooled? How do new genres and modes play a part in the changes?

Thinking about context

Please consider how the time period or historical moment of the texts assigned for Thursday impacts their language and purpose. How does context impact audience, especially discourse communities?

Thoughts on Genre

When you consider the readings for today, think about how genre plays a part in the way the argument is presented--tone, level of exposition (sharing information or assuming the readers have the info), diction, conventions/generic expectations.

Do the texts fulfill your generic expectations? Explain.

How Meat Means

What does meat mean to you? Discuss your relationship to meat and meat-eating, continuing our conversation from class on Thursday, making references to the reading where appropriate.

Welcome, Food Rhetoricians!

Hi Everyone--I'd like everyone to get started blogging on here, so set up your blogger account if you need to. When you're official, please join in the discussion.

What do you think about food? Is it a hobby, a passion, or just a necessity? Are you active in any discourse community that deals with food, food preparation, food aid, food policy, etc.? 

Just for kicks, after you riff a while about your relationship to food, try to think of one or two expressions, cliches,  or turns-of-phrase in our language that involve food. Read the respondents that came before you--no repeats!!