Doctors have been swearing by the Hippocratic Oath for centuries, recognizing that “there is art to medicine as well as science.” But what exactly does this entail? In this mini-course, we will immerse ourselves within the art of medicine by entering into the realm of illness narratives, expressions about or around the experience of being ill. This literary perspective will illuminate the experience of illness by looking beyond the scope of science.

In medical education, health practitioners embark on Grand Rounds by discussing individual patient cases at their bedsides. This course will be structured in parallel to this approach; each week, we will explore a different aspect of medicine through the lens of a different literary genre and through other modalities such as music, art, and dance. Through narrative theory, novels, short stories, poetry, memoir, and children’s literature, we will explore abstract illness, mental illnesses like depression, physical illnesses like the locked-in syndrome, disabilities like autism, cancer, and terminal illness.

Questions to be explored include:

• How do different genres of literature illuminate illness differently? What aspects of illness are made visible by some genres, overshadowed in others?
  
• What insight do literature and other artistic mediums provide into the illness experience? What are their limitations?
  
• How is illness represented, and what are the implications of these representations?
  
• How does illness affect individuals? How does it affect those around them?
  
• Ultimately, why should we study literature from the perspective of illness narratives? And why should we consider clinical encounters through a narrative lens? How does this perspective add dimension to literary analysis and how can it be applied to patient interactions in the medical field?

Course Requirements:

Course requirements will include engaging in weekly readings, reflecting with short blog entries, and contributing thoughtfully to class discussions. For the final project, students will have the opportunity to analyze a pre-existing illness narrative or to create their own representation of illness.

Intended Audience:

This interdisciplinary course is designed for individuals interested in health or humanity broadly conceived: from medicine, nursing, and public health fields to English, medical anthropology, and American culture. No background in any of these fields is necessary.

Class Format:

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