Course Description
Students in this upper-level English class will investigate a wide range of literary media about health and wellness. Although most of our readings will come from literary or creative writing, cinema, and art, we will also discuss foundational texts from medical anthropology, the history of medicine, and psychology.
Athena Title
Lit and the Health Humanities
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in ENGL 3836E, ENGL 3836S
Prerequisite
ENGL 1102 or ENGL 1102E or ENGL 1103 or ENGL 1050H or ENGL 1060H
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Students will practice reading, discussing, and writing about texts within the Health Humanities in order to ponder questions such as: • What constitutes "good health" in the artistic productions of different cultures or subcultures (for example, in the sophisticated U.S. hospitals of ER versus the mountain villages of the Hmong described by Anne Fadiman?) • Who reads these books or watches these shows and why? • What do you understand by “health literacy,” and to what extent can or should artistic or cultural products foster such an outcome? • What narrative constraints, if any, do medical dramas from different periods share? • What characteristics does the "good doctor" or the "bad doctor" have in these texts? • What are some of the specific equity concerns that are raised by the identity of the healer or the patient? Outcomes will include regular short writing assignments, individual and group presentations, and at least one longer, sequenced writing assignment that incorporates peer-review and revision.
Topical Outline
The course outline will vary depending upon the instructor; we recommend that interested students look at the detailed course description on the English Department website for fuller information. Sample texts might include: Anne Fadiman / The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Laurence Sterne / Tristram Shandy Louisa Alcott / Civil War Hospital Sketches Michael Ondaatje / The English Patient Richard Selzer / Doctor Stories Abraham Verghese / My Own Country: A Doctor's Story Lisa Sanders / Diagnosis (Netflix/New York Times) Lamar K. Dodd / “Heart Series” (Lamar Dodd School of Art) Oliver Sacks / The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Darren Aronofsky, dir./ Requiem for A Dream Mike Nichols, dir. / W;t Episodes from popular television medical dramas such as E.R., Grey’s Anatomy, or House, M.D.