Literature and Medicine

Catalog description

Through its many genres and forms, literature captures various states of the human mind and body, in sickness and in health, through devices of language, theme, structure, metaphor, and characterization. Literature can portray caregivers, patients, and those in the medical community to create empathy and understanding and to highlight ethical issues and existential questions. In this course, students will study literature in order to examine the way writing and reading can reflect and challenge notions of autonomy and care as well create conversations about the intersectionality of race, gender, and culture in both medical professions and literary studies.