FRN 2070 Camembert, Couture, and Couscous: Food and Fashion in French Culture
In the 18th century, French king Louis XIV played a key role in making France, specifically Paris, the leader of gastronomy and style in Europe. The nineteenth-century shopping arcades and the opening of the first department store in 1852 affirmed Paris's position as the center of "haute couture" or high fashion. In this course we will examine the place of food and fashion in French culture. We will analyze the role of haute cuisine, or the preparation of high quality food, as well as the use of regional and local foods, or produits du terroir, in French cuisine. We will study how ethnic foods, like the North African couscous and the Vietnamese banh mi, foods from France's ex-colonies, are now part of the French cuisine. More recently, with the banning of pork-free options for lunches in French public schools, we will investigate how food has become part of French debates on "laïcité," or secularism. Through close readings of literary and historical texts, newspaper and magazine articles, and films, we will study how food and fashion have played and continue to play a central role in French culture.
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