English 361 Narrative and Medicine
Spring 2011 MW 1:30-3:18
Jim Phelan, Ph. D., Department of English
John Vaughn, M.D., Student Health Services
Course Description: This course will examine the intersections between the
domains of narrative and medicine through a focus on narrative representations
of illness, aging, treatments, and doctor-patient relationships. How do efforts to
represent illness lead to the bending and breaking of narrative form? What can
narrative capture about medical experience (of doctors, patients, and those
affected by both) that clinical reports and other modes of representation do not?
Readings will include fiction such as Leo Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilych,"
memoirs such as Abraham Verghese's “The Tennis Partner,” drama such as
Margaret Edson's “Wit,” and some foundational theoretical texts such as Rita
Charon's Narrative Medicine and H. Porter Abbott's Introduction to the Study of
Narrative.
Course Rationale: Illness and medicine have long been subjects of literary fiction,
and in recent years there has been a spate of narratives by medical professionals
and their patients reflecting on their experiences. In addition, the Narrative Turn
has led to an increasing interest in the interrelations of narrative and medicine.
This GEC course would provide an opportunity for students to study diverse
representations of illness, aging, medical treatment, healing, and related issues
under the larger framework of considering what narrative can do for our
understanding of medicine, and what efforts to represent medical issues can do
for our understanding of the flexibility and reach of narrative. By considering the
reciprocal interactions between narrative and medicine, the course will shed light
on both and will lead into such other important issues as the ethics of medicine
and the ethics of narrative.
Course Units:
What Narrative and Medicine Can Do for Each Other
Narratives of Disease and Dying
Narratives from the Physician’s Perspective
Narratives from the Patient’s Perspective
Authors include Leo Tolstoy, Atul Gawande, William Carlos Williams, Anton
Chekhov, Margaret Edson, Tillie Olsen, Danielle Ofri, Marisa Acocella Marchetto,
Sherman Alexie and Abraham Verghese
For more information contact Jim Phelan (phelan.1@osu.edu) or John Vaughn
(vaughn.7@osu.edu)