You have now read 3 essays that could fulfill our research assignment. The Bordo piece uses primary texts to build a case for how media and advertising images and rhetoric coalesce to create an idealized, unrealistic relationship with food. The Shea article "New Grub Street" uses current journalism texts to report on and speculate about the recent trend of seeing food as an ethical matter, then goes on to suggest how his colleagues might address and render the rhetoric of such texts to benefit their audiences.
I think the Victory Gardens essay shows us how we don't have to have a political or occupational agenda to frame and perform a rhetorical inquiry.
Thinking about your own research project, what kind of texts could you explore and analyze in your quest to figure out how an idea or meaning obtains in our culture? Will the purpose of your own paper be political, academic/discovery, occupational? Discuss your ideas and possible texts for the research project.
The purpose of my own paper will be academic in nature. I’m interested in looking at the evolution in military rations to reflect “home.” For my research I would look at menus, packaging and reflections of the soldiers who ate them in order to get a sense of the changes made over the years. I would attempt to tie and change in military thinking from what is cheap and has a long shelf life to meals that taste good and feel a bit like home.
ReplyDeleteThe other topic that I’m interested in researching is beer and America. In order to research beer I would look at advertisements (print and TV commercials), label designs, and beer in American popular culture. I would research the culture traditions of beer with immigrants and look at its evolution in Americas psyche. I would also look into the political and legal ramifications of beer in America’s culture such as prohibition, changes in drinking age and other legal changes
For my research project I plan to explore the idea of urban gardening/farming.I want to examine a variety of texts to find out how this topic means. To find out exactly what urban gardening means to our culture I plan to examine text advocating the process like the article seen in our university's newspaper, pamphlets or interviews given by members of food cooperatives both local and across the country, the meat paper article we read in class, articles questioning urban gardening etc. I'm leaning towards a more academic/discovery purpose to my paper to educate readers on exactly what this trend is, and how they can see it in their world. How has the idea changed over the years to become what it is now? Why do people do it? What is their goal? What qualifies as an urban garden? These are a few of the questions that I will ask myself while researching this topic.
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ReplyDeleteFor my research project I was considering a topic somehow related to analyzing the rhetoric of texts relating to cake. Currently, I am wavering between exploring the meaning/significance of different cakes for different occasions, such as weddings and birthdays, or exploring the meaning/significance of the different types of cake, such as cheesecake vs. traditional cake.
ReplyDeleteThe texts I would use to research the meaning of cakes for different occasions could include texts from bakeries to investigate how they portray the different cakes. To research the different types of cake and their meaning, I could include cookbooks and food magazines in my research.
For my research project I am considering to use the way advertisements makes being hungry a beast that we want to beat in a battle in order to become thin. I am planning on using commercials, print advertisments, and articles in order to analyze this topic. I want to research how it affects our culture and how we look at food as a forbidden object. I have also been considering for my project doing cancer and food, and how they say that eating certain extreme food regimes will lower the risk of cancer and how they are advertised in the media to prevent cancer. If anyone has any suggestions to this idea I am open to comments. Either way I go I would be looking at these from a discovery/academic standpoint, and I want to educate readers on how advertisements shape how we feel about food.
ReplyDeleteFor my research project I would analyze texts that are scholary/peer reviewed, a clip from off of youtube that may relate to my topic. I would be looking for articles that come from different time frames so that I can analyze how chocolate was viewed in the past compared to how we look at chocolate today.
ReplyDeleteFor my research project i plan on analyzing texts that shows the history of turkey and how it has evovled into a everyday meal. the history of turkey and where it came from will start my essay. Inorder for people to understand the importance of turkey to America they have to understand where it came from and why it was valued. the i plan on moving on to talk about why turkey is a good thing. i will get information about the health benefits that comes along with turkey. i will also find article and video showing why turkey is better then red meat. i already have one video lined up to show how pork turns into maggets when coke is poured on it. this is all i have so far but i think its going to turn out okay.
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