Here’s my draft outline for possible chapters I’m proposing:

Overall argument: cookery texts as multimodal texts. Attempt to not only value cookery texts as rhetorical but especially to expand and explore the definition of multimodality. A theory-building rhetorical project.

Chapter 1: Introduction
–context, lit review, discussion of methods/methodology
–data: library sources

Chapter 2: Multimodal Cookbooks: Remediating Text
–in-depth lit review concerning multimodality, expanding definition of multimodality
–data: library sources, primary sources (19th century American cookbooks)

Chapter 3: Multimodal Literacies: The Cook as Teacher and Learner
–analysis of the process of reading/interpreting a recipe, possibly with historical background on the recipe’s roots as a oral culture
–data: library sources, small-scale reception study of local cooks, possible primary sources (19th century reform cookbooks–ones which focused on training the new cook)
–I’d like to include this reception study. If I can’t use the data in more than just this chapter, is it not useful? I’d like to use the data possibly in other chapters where applicable.

Chapter 4: Cooking with the Body: Cooking as Performance
–discussion of the materiality of cookbooks, as they refer to and call for a physical act
–data: library sources, primary source (sample television cooking programs, such as Julia Child, possibly in conjunction with 19th-century cookbooks or is that too much stuff?)

Chapter 5: Conclusion. Cooking in Print: Historical Multimodal Texts and Technology
–historical review of 19th-century cookbooks and the ways in which they took advantage of new advancements in technology
–data: library sources, primary sources (19th-century cookbooks)
–this may be similar to a paper currently under consideration in College English, but with a further developed theory base.

Problem: I’m not sure how I can defend my choice of focusing on 19th century American cookbooks. They don’t especially show how cookbooks are multimodal, any more than other print recipes do. They do show advances in technology at the time. They also are at a point in history where mass production of printed books was new and popular.

Problem: Is there enough connection between these chapters? Do they all work towards arguing for cookbooks as multimodal and for the definition of multimodality to be expanded?

Thanks
–E