Eating Ourselves: Cannibalism and the Production of the Human
CHUM 330
Spring 2027
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
ANTH 367, STS 351 |
This upper-level seminar examines how cannibalism -- both as a biological act and as a powerful cultural imaginary -- has shaped understandings of humanity, morality, and civilization in the modern world. Drawing on work in anthropology, science and technology studies, critical food studies, speculative fiction, and posthumanist theory, the course explores how fears and fantasies of "eating ourselves" reveal cultural anxieties about difference, desire, and domination while surfacing in contexts ranging from colonial encounters and famine narratives to contemporary biotechnologies that promise "slaughter-free meat." Students will consider how cannibalism operates as a moral and political trope in discourses about the colonized other, resource scarcity, and the violence of capitalist consumption, as well as a lens for rethinking ethics in an era of ecological crisis and technological transformation. Engaging ethnographic, historical, and theoretical readings alongside visual and popular media, the course invites students to interrogate the shifting boundaries of the edible and the human while exploring what forms of life, relation, and care might emerge from confronting what we most fear to eat. Engaging directly with the Center for the Humanities theme of "Monstrosities," students will employ cannibalism as a critical lens for understanding the monstrous figures, landscapes, and technologies humans create through consumption, exploitation, and the exercise of power. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA CHUM |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (Animal Studies Minor)(Science and Technology Studies) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Texts may include William Arens, The Man-Eating Myth (1979); Michel de Montaigne, ¿Of Cannibals¿ (1580); Peter Hulme, Colonial Encounters (1986); Agustina Bazterrica. Tender is the Flesh, (2017); Beth A. Conklin, Consuming Grief (2001); Bill Schutt, Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History (2017); Don LePan, Animals (2009); Vincent Woodard, The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism within U.S. Slave Culture (2014); Soylent Green (dir. Richard Fleischer, 1973), Hannibal (NBC, 2013¿2015)
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Examinations and Assignments:
Final project, reading journal, discussion facilitating, and group presentations. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
There will be 3-4 film screenings scheduled for nights outside of the regular class time. |
| Instructor(s): Abrell,Elan Louis Times: ....R.. 01:20PM-04:10PM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 5 | JR major: 5 | | |
| Seats Available: 15 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 3 | JR non-major: 3 | SO: 0 | FR: 0 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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