# Food Narratives and Cultural Studies

- Institution: Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology
- Department: Humanities and Social Sciences
- Teacher: Prof. Gigy J Alex
- Level: Undergraduate
- Language: English
- Subjects: Society and politics
- Source: [NPTEL](https://nptel.ac.in/courses/109106004)
- Licence: [CC BY-NC-SA](https://nptel.ac.in/faq) (Non-commercial use only.)
- Syllabus: [at the source](https://nptel.ac.in/courses/109106004)
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (sources give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the source's own words)

This 30-hour interdisciplinary course, offered over 12 weeks and open to undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral students, explores the dynamic relationship between food and culture through the lens of Food Studies. Drawing from literature, cultural theory, and social sciences, it investigates how food functions as a symbol, a site of memory, identity, and power. Students will engage with critical texts by thinkers like Claude Lévi-Strauss, Roland Barthes, Mary Douglas, Arjun Appadurai, Dolly Kikon, Pierre Bourdieu, and David Sutton to understand food as both a system of signs and a social practice. Beginning with the question “What makes food a cultural text?” the course examines sensory memory, social identity, and the gendered and political dynamics of food labor. Topics include the kitchen as a space of care and control, food as a tool for sustaining diasporic identities, and its role in shaping national and cultural imaginaries. We also explore how food can symbolize desire, disgust, and sexuality, and its powerful visual appeal in the era of media and algorithms.

Intended audience: UG PG and PhD Students

Prerequisites: Should be familiar with language and literature

## Lectures

1. [Charles Lamb - "A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig" (Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/7d4b5d1642a8) (YouTube)
2. [Claude Lévi-Strauss - "The Culinary Triangle" (Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/92e44f943cf4) (YouTube)
3. [Roland Barthes - "Towards a Psychosociology of Contemporary Food Consumption" (Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/2978513df970) (YouTube)
4. [Gabriel Axel - Babette’s Feast (Film)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/db56e47af684) (YouTube)
5. [Juzo Itami - Tampopo (Film)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/8a2addb16a76) (YouTube)
6. [David Sutton - "Food and the Senses" (Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/b2c07cfb523c) (YouTube)
7. [Jhumpa Lahiri - "A Temporary Matter" (Short story)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/e756a273a592) (YouTube)
8. [Seamus Heaney - "Blackberry-Picking" (Poem)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/b5ca6e31ba98) (YouTube)
9. [Sandra Nettelbeck - Mostly Martha (Film)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/b6785f5423a3) (YouTube)
10. [Tran Anh Hung - The Taste of Things (Film)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/ebba5fe3c1c0) (YouTube)
11. [Pierre Bourdieu - "Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste" (Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/ba2f39728084) (YouTube)
12. [Jack Goody - “Industrial Food” from Cooking, Cuisine and Class (Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/49f95b62d325) (YouTube)
13. [Dylan Clark - "The Raw and the Rotten: Punk Cuisine" (Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/0daf0ff21627) (YouTube)
14. [Michael Pollan - Introduction and Chapter 1 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/6b641073dcab) (YouTube)
15. [Rituparna Patgiri - "Changing Food Habits of Urban Middle-Class Youth in India: ‘Ordering In’" (Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/2c6544cb0472) (YouTube)
16. [M. Manikandan - Kakka Muttai (Film)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/f75be9861afd) (YouTube)
17. [Manju Kapur - "Chocolate" (Short story)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/1e8b672dd56c) (YouTube)
18. [Madeleine Thien - "Simple Recipes" (Short story)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/e62b476f8cf7) (YouTube)
19. [Maya Angelou - "The Health Food Diner" (Poem)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/125ee5fd6a52) (YouTube)
20. [Karma Brown - Recipe for a Perfect Wife (Novel)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/5f6d088ec29a) (YouTube)
21. [Jeo Baby - The Great Indian Kitchen (Film)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/1001679132d5) (YouTube)
22. [Langston Hughes - "Harlem" (Poem)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/8c9a7b33cccd) (YouTube)
23. [Shahu Patole - Dalit Kitchens of Marathwada (Memoir)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/88200e024903) (YouTube)
24. [Dolly Kikon - "Dirty Food: Racism and Casteism in India" (Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/b775e32f6731) (YouTube)
25. [A. R. Venkatachalapathy - In Those Days There Was No Coffee (Book)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/7e17d5e2b9b0) (YouTube)
26. [Githa Hariharan - "Gajar Halwa" (Short story)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/d3d9a9d830b3) (YouTube)
27. [Ambai - A Kitchen in the Corner of the House (Short story)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/457b415e0359) (YouTube)
28. [Bama - Karukku (Autobiography)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/9bdabdc6aae0) (YouTube)
29. [Alan Bearsworth and Teresa Keil - "Dieting, Fat, and Body Image" (Chapter) (Book: Sociology on the Menu)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/97c593d3455b) (YouTube)
30. [Carol J Adams - Sexual Politics of Meat (Introduction & Chapter 1 of the Book)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/754d4965b75b) (YouTube)
31. [Paul Freedman - "Feasts and Famines" (Essay) (Book: Why Food Matters)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/c041057e4959) (YouTube)
32. [Denis Villeneuve - Dune (Film)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/cd3f35bb2c64) (YouTube)
33. [Christopher Nolan - Interstellar (Film)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/98e3f8a3b744) (YouTube)
34. [Anita Mannur - "Culinary Nostalgia: Authenticity, Nationalism, and Diaspora" (Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/ff70d98b9e06) (YouTube)
35. [Krishendu Ray - "Gastro Ethnicity. Reorienting Ethnic Studies" (Essay) (Book: The Migrant's Table)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/8c8838258a74) (YouTube)
36. [Jon Holtzman - "Food and Memory"(Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/252632d28d39) (YouTube)
37. [Ruth Maxey - "Mangoes and Coconuts and Grandmothers" (Chapter) Book South Asian Atlantic Literature, 1970–2010](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/6e67ea084ff8) (YouTube)
38. [Reem Assil - Arabiyya: Recipes from the Life of an Arab in Diaspora (Cookbook)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/7ad603720075) (YouTube)
39. [Temsula Ao - Once Upon a Life (Excerpts from Memoir)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/6203e2b6054c) (YouTube)
40. [Arjun Appadurai - "How to Make a National Cuisine" (Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/32113b9c4c4b) (YouTube)
41. ["Pushpesh Pant - ""India: Food and the Making of the Nation"" (Essay) "](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/9148f0e1f400) (YouTube)
42. [Ashis Nandy - "Ethnic Cuisine: The Significant Other" (Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/2fe8e6b8aa94) (YouTube)
43. [Anand Haridas - "This is How You Cook Beef" (Poem)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/8a1978d0c5e9) (YouTube)
44. [Joel Zwick - My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Film)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/615a8f5a1a56) (YouTube)
45. [Michael Ondaatje - "The Cinnamon Peeler" (Poem)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/571883245f40) (YouTube)
46. [D. H. Lawrence - "Figs" (Poem)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/1540101e4225) (YouTube)
47. [Margaret Atwood - The Edible Woman (Novel)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/da7f8736cce3) (YouTube)
48. [Asako Yuzuki - Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder (Novel)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/8b94530ad0d4) (YouTube)
49. [Parama Roy - "Abstinence: Manifestos on Meat and Masculinity" (Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/889a714024e6) (YouTube)
50. [Alfonso Arau - Like Water for Chocolate (Film)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/530dd271c8fa) (YouTube)
51. [Mary Douglas - “The Abominations of Leviticus” (Chapter from the Book: Purity and Danger)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/975fcb33a223) (YouTube)
52. [Sara Ahmed - “The Politics of Disgust” (Chapter from Book: The Cultural Politics of Emotion)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/7da0fdcdb725) (YouTube)
53. [Max Ryynänen, Heidi S. Kosonen, and Susanne C. Ylönen - "From Visceral to the Aesthetic: Tracing Disgust in Contemporary Culture" (Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/a7516eec373f) (YouTube)
54. [Om Prakash Valmiki - Joothan: A Dalit’s Life (Autobiographical novel)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/5070b1e0cad0) (YouTube)
55. [Julia Ducournau - Raw (Film)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/2f54a300e04c) (YouTube)
56. [Bhaskar Hazarika - Aamis (Film)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/6f96c947b72f) (YouTube)
57. [Laura Lindenfeld & Fabio Parasecoli - Introduction of the book Feasting Our Eyes, “Food and the Senses in Film” (Essays)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/16c88ea34532) (YouTube)
58. [Anne E McBride - "Food Porn" (Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/0e8d2548cf08) (YouTube)
59. [Jon Favreau - Chef (Film)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/8c6066419e99) (YouTube)
60. [Nora Ephron - Julie and Julia (Film)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/736e78401549) (YouTube)
61. [Richard Linklater - Fast Food Nation (Film)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/c6584ac540db) (YouTube)
62. [Ritesh Batra - Lunchbox (Film)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/82d07c7ba8ff) (YouTube)
63. [Deborah Lupton - "Carnivalesque Food Videos: Excess, Gender and Affect on YouTube" (From the book: Digital Food Cultures)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/fbd92ec59f28) (YouTube)
64. [Michael Pennell - "More than Food Porn" (Essay)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/117c4d8bf5a4) (YouTube)
65. [Panel Discussion I - Analysis of Online Visual Media: Curated reels/shorts of plating aesthetics, mukbangs, or slow food, farm livelihoods](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/90a7d2ad26de) (YouTube)
66. [Panel Discussion II - Food travel digital narratives – TLC Channel items, Rockyand Mayur – Highway on My Plate, Anthony Bourdain Shows](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/nptel/109106004/a622a1e60fa1) (YouTube)