ENGL 3090: Literature & Medicine

As individuals, members of communities, and citizens of nations and the world, our health and well-being depend on personal, social, financial, and cultural
situations, medical and institutional practices, and access to resources based on demographic, geographic, legal, and political factors—not just scientific knowledge and surgical skill. This course offers a broad sampling of several major topics in the medical humanities through literary and popular texts; it also demands some critical depth and provides theoretical language and concepts to engage the field of medical humanities (AKA “health humanities,” “critical medical humanities,” etc). Along the way we will look at how medical issues inevitably involve specific cultural perspectives and, at times, disguise them in the supposedly neutral terms of an empirical discourse. Additionally, we will explore social and cultural issues related to the profession of medicine, including power dynamics in the doctor-patient relationship and how the social position of each person in this relationship impacts a doctor’s practice of medicine, as well as the patient’s medical experience. Readings may cover topics such as health disparities, environmental health issues, mental health, the health industrial complex, and emerging conversations from related disciplines like disability studies, neurodiversity studies, and narrative medicine. Students examine how medical practice is presented in a variety of genres including novels, short stories, essays, poetry, drama, and film. Students will demonstrate knowledge through class discussion primarily, along with reading responses, a research project, and a final exam.