“Tell me what kind of food you eat, and I will tell you what kind of man you are,” is an oft-quoted declaration by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, famous eighteenth-century French epicure. While this course does not promise grand revelations, we will nevertheless explore how food—its production, consumption, history, culture, pathways—so powerfully influences our sense of ethnic, communal, familial, physiological, and personal identities. This course is not only literary, although we will be reading short and long fiction on food cultures and practices. The essential requirements of an English course (thoughtful analysis, critical thinking, clear writing, and articulate speech) apply, but some of the readings will be interdisciplinary and cross-cultural. Students will be encouraged to pursue additional, independent research into the cultures of food not just in literature but from macro-level geopolitics to micro-level impacts.