University of Massachusetts Boston
English g183: Literature and Society:
Literature, Medicine and Culture
Spring 2007 Course Syllabus
Professor Louise Penner
Office: W-6-88
Office Phone: 287-6724
Office Hours: TR 2:30-3:30 and by appointment
Class Meetings: TR 1:00-2:15; R 12:00-12:50
Class Location: W/1/43
Course Description:
Contemporary Western medicine offers myriad technological advances
in observing, diagnosing, and treating disease. As patients we find great
comfort in these advances and seek to employ physicians who are at the
“cutting edge” in their fields, utilizing the newest and best medical
research. Particularly in recent years, however, patients and medical
professionals have increasingly complained of the impersonal nature of
medicine, asserting that patients’ own experiences of illness, diagnosis,
and treatment have been disregarded in the interests of purportedly
objective science.
This course considers the humanistic aspects --“the human factor”—in
medicine. We read works from the perspective of both patients and
medical professionals in order focus on those areas of medicine that
challenge our ideas about what we think we want from medical
research and practice in the twenty-first century.
This course is a First Year Seminar. It is for new students who have
fewer than 30 credits. First Year Seminars meet 4 hours per week;
students earn 4 credits for their coursework. Each course, in addition to
the instructor, is assigned a staff academic advisor, Linda
Hamilton, and a student mentor, John Doherty. The academic
advisor will visit our class during the semester and will provide various
forms of student support, including academic counseling, financial aid
advice, and answering questions regarding university life. The mentor
is an upper-level undergraduate who can assist with computer accounts,
e-mail, and library research in addition to serving as a peer
counselor. You should also feel free to discuss concerns related to your
undergraduate experience with your mentor.
Required Texts:
Jean Dominique-Bauby The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Margaret Edson, Wit
Ann Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Atul Gawande, Complications
Abraham Verghese, My Own Country
Course packet of articles and book chapters on electronic reserve
Important details:
**You will need to have a library barcode to access the e-reserve
materials**
**Our e-reserve password is: doctor**
**You will need to have an active U Mass email account that you can
access frequently since I will be asking you to email and print copies of
select assignments to distribute to all of the seminar participants.**
**The course syllabus, assignments, and contact information will be
available on our course website. Details will follow.
Course Objectives:
[The objectives of this course are fundamentally tied to the further
development of seven skills crucial for academic success: careful
reading; (clear) writing; critical thinking; working with computers
(information technology/information literacy); engaging in team work;
effective listening and oral presentation; providing thoughtful selfassessment or self-evaluation.]
1. To allow students to examine the interdisciplinary field of medical
humanities. By reading these works of literature, medicine,
philosophy, medical anthropology, and medical sociology, we will
begin to understand the importance of the “human factor” in medical
research and practice. We will see how individual and collective
personalities, preferences, and biases influence the way medicine has
been practiced in the past and will be practiced in the future.
2. To permit students to read and appreciate important works of
research, reflection, and artistic expression, analyzing how they are
constructed as texts and placing them within a specific historical and
cultural context. In this manner, we will relate scientific and medical
discussions and discoveries to contemporary societal needs and
political concerns.
3. To help students improve their writing skills through investigation
and analysis. Students will be expected not only to use primary
sources, here various nonfiction writings and literary texts,
but also secondary sources, in the form of scholarly research. Students,
through class discussion, short response papers, oral presentations, and
essays, will be encouraged to create their own unique approaches to
examining and interpreting the above selection. Through selfassessment, students will improve their analytical abilities.
4. To offer students the opportunity to present and explore their ideas in
a public forum. By participating in small group and large group
discussions and by offering short presentations, students will be able to
articulate and share ideas, as well as respectfully challenge others, thus
maturing as thinkers and improving their public speaking skills.
5. By actively engaging with computer systems, using the internet and
assorted databases, students will build on technological knowledge and
skills.
Course Mechanics:
• Attendance and punctuality are required. More than four absences
will result in your grade being lowered. After six absences a student
may fail the class.
• Class participation is a must. It improves the quality of discussion
(and is graded for both content and frequency).
• Late work other than papers: Work that is late can be hand delivered
within a week of the due date. It will be marked down 1/2 letter grade.
• No late essays will be accepted without the student having obtained
prior permission from me unless extreme circumstances can be
demonstrated.
• All essays must be typed. Each should be double-spaced and have a
one-inch margin. Please use a standard font, such as Times New
Roman, 12 pt and use MLA Bibliographic documentation. Remember
to title your essays and include page numbers and a Works Cited
page. Also include your name, course title (and number), as well as the
date the assignment is due. Staple all pages together.
• Plagiarism, the uncredited use of another’s words, research, and
thoughts, is forbidden. If it is suspected, a consultation with materials
(that you will be asked to provide) will be required. The first time
either cheating or plagiarism is proven, the student receives an F for the
assignment. After the second occurrence, he or she is dismissed from
the course. Please document your sources appropriately.
• If you have a disability and feel you will need accommodations in
order to complete course requirements, please let me know and contact
the Ross Center for Disability Services (M-1-401) at (617)287-7430.
• You are responsible for collecting any materials or assignments
handed out during an absence.
• You will be expected to open an e-mail account. The university
provides this free of charge. In order to sign up, go to room 41 in
Healey Library (located on the Upper Level).
Course Requirements
Attendance and participation 10%
Class presentations (and self-assessment) 10%
Short (ungraded) response papers and (graded) quizzes 10%
Essay #1 15%
Essay #2 25%
Essay #3 30%
Reading Schedule
WEEK 1 Introductions to the course and each other
T Jan 30 Course Introduction:
R Feb 1 Discussion William Carlos Williams, “The Use of Force”
(Class Handout) and diagnostic essay
Part One: Examining Medical Narrative
WEEK 2
M Feb 5 Add/Drop Ends
T Feb 6 D.A. Miller, “Narrative” (on e-reserve)
Atul Gawande: Complications: Introduction (3-8) and “Education of a
Knife” (11-34)
R Feb 8 Library instruction
WEEK 3
T Feb. 13 Gawande: “The Computer and the Hernia Factory”
“When Doctors Make Mistakes”
“Nine Thousand Surgeons”
“When Good Doctors Go Bad”
R Feb 15 Gawande: Complications: Part II: Mystery
Begin Presentations
WEEK 4
M Feb 19 Presidents Day
T Feb 20 Gawande: Complications Part III: Uncertainty
Continue Presentations
R Feb 22 Continue Presentations
Jean-Dominique Bauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
WEEK 5
T Feb 27 Video: Bill Moyers, Healing and the Mind
R Mar 1 Bauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly/ Paper #1
Due for Peer Review
Part Two: Culture and Medicine
WEEK 6
T Mar 6 Anne Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
R Mar 8 Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
WEEK 7
T Mar 13 Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall
Down/ Revision Paper 1 due
R Mar 15 Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
T Mar 20 Spring Break!
R Mar 22 Have fun!
WEEK 8
T Mar 27 Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
R Mar 29 Janelle S. Taylor, “Confronting Culture in Medicine’s
“Culture of No Culture’” and “The Story Catches You and You Fall
Down”
WEEK 9
T. Apr 3 Abraham Verghese, My Own Country
R Apr 5 Verghese, My Own Country
WEEK 10
T Apr 10 Verghese, My Own Country
R Apr 12 Rajini Srikanth, “Abraham Verghese Doctors Autobiography
in His Own Country” from Asian American Literature: Form,
Confrontation, and Transformation (On e-reserve). Paper #2 Due for
Peer Review
Part Three: The Ethics of Medical Stories
WEEK 11
T Apr 17 John Kelly, “Romy’s Knee” (course reserve)
R Apr 19 Kelly, “Romy’s Knee”
Course withdrawal and pass/fail deadline
WEEK 12
T Apr. 24 Kelly and John Locke, and Sanford Leikin (on ereserve)/ Revision Paper 2 Due
R Apr 26 Margaret Edson, Wit
WEEK 13
T May 1 Edson, Wit
R May 3 Edson, Wit
Part Four: Final paper workshopping
WEEK 14
T May 8 Student-led discussions of research texts/ Workshop final
essays
R May 10 Student-led discussions of research texts/ Workshop final
essays
WEEK 15
T May 15 Student-led discussions of research texts/ Workshop final
essays
R May 17 Paper #3 Due for Peer Review
WEEK 16
T May 22 Wrap up party, evaluations
M May 28 Revision, Paper #3 Due: 12:00 p.m. My mailbox in the
English Department Offce: 6th floor Wheatley hall