Reading / Viewing:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story” (TED talk)
Food Memoirs:
Frank Bruni, Excerpt, Born Round , read pp. 1–18.
Lauren Musni, “How Birthday Pancit Helped Me Learn to Love My Filipino Heritage,” Food and Wine, June 2022.
Adichie: “Danger of a Single Story”
- Why is Adichie so concerned about “the single story?” What examples does she provide of telling the “single story”? How does she position herself as a narrator? How you ever found yourself as a writer telling a “single story”? In Essay 1, did you find yourself drawn towards crafting a “single story”?
- What advice does Adichie give about avoiding or transcending the “single story”?
Food Memoirs: Bruni, Musni
The food memoir genre is expansive, eclectic, and very popular among the reading public. Food memories often transport us into reflections on such issues as family relationships, ethnicity, culture, religion, sensory and culinary pleasures, economic deprivation, and body image. Compare and contrast the ways that Frank Bruni and Lauren Musni reflect on their relationships to food (or to a specific food).
What’s the motive for each writer narrating their “food story”? What is memorable for you about each piece? Choose three quotes or ideas from each piece that interested you.
Is there a “single story” in the food memoir subgenre? Do either or both of these pieces seem to tell a “single story”?
