“The Urgency of Pleasure: Theorizing a Rhetoric of Pleasure in Contemporary Cookbooks”

Cookbooks garner a great deal of criticism for being ahistorical or apolitical, avoiding difficult subjects, whitewashing the past, minimizing pain, or rushing to a naively optimistic vision of a “welcome table” where food is a great equalizer and unifier. 

Carrie Helms Tippen, published author and assistant professor of English and director of First Year Writing at Chatham University will examine the urgency of pleasure as a rhetoric in cookbooks during a talk presented on Friday, February 7 from 3:15 to 4:15 in the Guilford Parlor, 11112 Bellflower Road. 

Tippen’s lecture is titled “The Urgency of Pleasure: Theorizing a Rhetoric of Pleasure in Contemporary Cookbooks.” Her academic work has been featured in Gastronomica, Food and Foodways, Southern Quarterly, and Food, Culture, and Society. She is the host of the podcast New Books in Food.