Sick Stories: Illness, Pain, and Medicine in German Literature and Beyond.

Catalog description

This course examines portrayals of illness, pain, and medicine in German literature and beyond from the Middle Ages to today. Students engage with novels, plays, essays, films, and theory--from Sophocles and Thomas Mann to Kafka, Freud, Woolf, and Biss--alongside critics like Sontag and Berlant. Integrating literary studies, medical humanities, and ethics, the class explores how narratives of suffering address dignity, justice, and civic responsibility. Students analyze how personal and professional medical experiences shape literary forms, question medical authority, and influence cultural norms, ultimately developing skills to interpret, critique, and ethically evaluate literature's role in shaping views on health.