Literature and Medicine

Because illness, physical and mental suffering, and fear of death can have such powerful and disturbing effects on an individual's experience, literary works depicting them are worth exploring in depth. In this class we will read a selection of works that depict the suffering caused by diseases like cancer, tuberculosis, asthma, influenza, and plague; explore the symbolic and allegorical meanings that have come to be associated with them; and consider the roles and responsibilities of physicians charged with treating patients with these conditions. Readings will be drawn from such writers as Susan Sontag, William Carlos Williams, Daniel Defoe, George Eliot, and Katherine Anne Porter, and in translation from writers such as Boccaccio, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Proust, Camus and Saramago. In this writing-intensive course, students will work on their skills in writing, revision, literary analysis, and argumentation.

Course Attributes: EN H; BU Hum; AS HUM; AS WI I; FA HUM; AR HUM

Literature and Medicine

ENGLISH LITERATURE 391W

Section 01