This is a course on texts “around” food—texts that use food as their subject, but also texts that use food to symbolize, to evoke, or merely to talk about "culture," a central but often elusive concept. We will think critically about how these texts function as pieces of writing and as products of specific cultural contexts and cultural assumptions, and we will respond to them in kind. Over the course of the semester, you will hone your skills as a critical reader and writer at the college level and beyond. This course does not espouse any particular philosophy on how or why we eat, but I hope you will come away with a new appreciation for how and why we write.