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.
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.
What we read and watch:
To a certain extent what we watch will depend upon what's currently available on the major streaming services (or owned by UGA) most affordably. Consider your streaming fees part of your "book budget" for this class.
We will definitely read the following books:
Anne Fadiman / The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
(used is fine)
Abraham Verghese / My Own Country: A Doctor's Story (used is fine)
Lamar K. Dodd / “Heart Series” (Lamar Dodd School of Art) (yes, this will be a field trip!)
Louisa Alcott / Civil War Hospital Sketches (electronic text here)
Oliver Sacks / The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (used is fine)
Films and TV shows (depending on what's available)
Lisa Sanders / Diagnosis (Netflix/New York Times) (I plan to have you read several columns and to watch one episode)
Darren Aronofsky, dir./ Requiem for A Dream (NB disturbing and explicit content)
Episodes from popular television medical dramas such as E.R., Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs, or House, M.D.