Food is worldly recognized as a most representative aspect of Italian culture. What is the history behind the love story between Italians and food? By looking at the Italian food culture from a critical perspective, students will grapple with topical questions about the role of food in the historical formation of Italy, as well as its importance in contemporary Italian society, and how the global success of this Italian brand is changing longstanding traditions, producing many groundbreaking innovations but also causing numerous issues. What is the difference between the symbolic and concrete value of food? What are the ethics of eating? More specifically, what is the historical relationship between food production, its distribution and the construction of the unitary Italian state? How does food relate to economic exploitation and oppression? Students will discuss a number of key critical texts, literary pieces, movies, TV shows, and case studies like the global success of the Mediterranean Diet, the Slow Food Movement, and Italian star chefs like Gualtiero Marchesi and Massimo Bottura, but also of more complicated mass models like Eataly and Nutella, and big events like Expo 2015 in Milan and Vinitaly in Verona. Students will not only learn about the cultural and economic history of the Italian food industry, but will also practice with new vocabulary and linguistic structures to get accustomed to a more specialized usage of the language for academic and professional purposes.

Intended Audience:

Undergraduate students with a good knowledge of Italian. The topic of the course is critical food studies, and lends itself to a wide variety of approaches and interests: language, literature, arts, social history, cultural studies, economics, business, marketing and more. All students are welcome regardless of their academic specialization and their prior knowledge of the subject.