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Working chronologically and in mixed genres, this courses seeks to examine the reciprocal fascination between medicine and literature. We will begin with readings from Montaigne's ESSAYS (1588) and selected works by
John
Donne including the Holy Sonnets and excerpts from his DEVOTIONS UPON EMERGENT OCCASIONS (1624). The course will then move to the nineteenth century and the development of a new literary realism under the auspices of
authors
like Gustave Flaubert and Anton Chekhov. Flaubert's MADAME BOVARY (1857) takes an unsparing look at the both the psyche of Emma Bovary and the condition of medical knowledge in nineteenth-century France, and Chekhov's
short
stories and drama bring the trained eye of the physician to bear on the events of everyday life. From Chekhov in particular we will look for detailed questions about the nature of 'diagnosis' (what is wrong) and
'healing'
(what can be righted) as well as a dispassionate examination of the life of the medical professional.
The course continues into the twentieth century with selections from the short stories and poems of writer and
physician
William Carlos Williams. We will then read John Irving's novel THE CIDER HOUSE RULES (1985), and will conclude with a discussion of Margaret Edson's WIT (drama, 1999). Edson's work is a powerful recent meditation on
the
encounter between literary activity and medical science, and will allow us to re-consider the poetry of John Donne from a specifically modern perspective.
Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.
COURSE FORMAT: Discussion
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA COL Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE
Last Updated on MAR-18-2003
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459