ENG 110B
Literature and Medicine: Ways of Reading, Ways of Knowing
Professor Onita Vaz
Office: Chambers 3289; ext. 2771
Email: onvaz@davidson.edu
Office Hours: MWF 1:30-3:30 & by appointment
Normal Rockwell, Doctor and Doll
Spring 2015
CRN: 23790
MWF 10:30-11:20
Chambers 3198
Edvard Munch, The Scream
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Science and medicine have indelibly influenced how we understand and respond to the physical and
mental state of being human. We will consider how an appreciation of literary texts and the questions they
broach give us a different insight into the human condition and inflect our awareness of health, addiction,
illness, disease, suffering, treatment, recovery, and death. In doing so, we will also pay close attention to
the cultural coding of these issues, as we examine how gender, class, race, sexual orientation or other
cultural biases color our perceptions of health, disease, and suffering.
English 110 satisfies the distribution requirement in literature and also counts towards the English major.
Plan on doing a lot of reading and engaging in informed, thoughtful, and collegial discussion in class.
At the end of this course, you should be able to carefully and intelligently close read texts, identify the
ways in which social, cultural, and historical perceptions and realities shape the ways health and illness
are conceived, evaluate how these conceptions are depicted in literary texts, and be acutely aware of how
our own conceptions of health and illness are influenced by the world in which we live.
**This syllabus may be subject to change pending our mutual agreement.**
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Jane Austen, Persuasion (Oxford UP)
Margaret Edson, Wit (Faber & Faber)
Atul Gawande, Complications (Picador)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper (Bedford/St. Martin’s)
William Shakespeare, Macbeth (Signet)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Penguin)
Course reserve materials available on Moodle (listed as “Moodle” in the reading schedule) should be
printed and brought to class: <http://moodle.davidson.edu/moodle/>.
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RECOMMENDED REFERENCE GUIDES
Oxford English Dictionary (accessible online through the Davidson College Library)
Guide to MLA documentation: <http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/RES5e_ch08_o.html>
REQUIREMENTS AND POLICIES:
Attendance and Class Participation
Your attendance at all class sessions is mandatory and crucial, not only towards your success in the
course, but also because everyone’s lively, engaged and informed participation will be essential to the
success of this course, which will be primarily discussion-based. I expect everyone to be on time.
Missing class or excessive tardiness will affect your final grade. More than three (3) absences will
affect your final grade, which will be lowered by one grade step (B to B-); every two (2) “tardies” will
count as one absence. Missing ten (10) classes will result in a course grade of F. I must be notified of
any absence of which you have prior knowledge (this does not apply to a hangover). You must have a
valid reason for missing class, such as illness or family emergency. If such an emergency prevents you
from attending class, please e-mail me as soon as you get a chance. If you have to miss any class session
for a college-sponsored event, please inform me at least one week prior to your absence. All excuses of a
medical nature require a hard copy of a doctor’s note; an appointment slip will not suffice.
Reading Assignments
All readings must be completed before the class session in which they will be discussed. You should
bring at least one question or comment about the day’s readings to each class session; your input
will be solicited daily, because your intellectual exchange with your peers and with me is an essential
component of this course. Please bring the relevant texts to class.
Essays
You will write two (2) thesis-driven essays of varying lengths (see the Grade Breakdown). I will
provide you with a choice of topics/questions. The focus of these essays should be the careful,
interesting, and complex close reading of a text (or texts). Make a specific argument in your essay and
substantiate it with close attention to details in the text(s). Do not use any secondary sources other than
the articles assigned, if needed. I want to see how you explore the materials we read. If you regurgitate
class discussion or my lectures in your essays, you will receive a dismally low grade. The essay is
another opportunity to develop your own ideas about the assigned material. Again, make sure you bolster
your interpretation with credible evidence from and discussion of the text(s). More information about
each assignment will follow closer to the due dates. I highly recommend that you discuss your ideas with
me before submitting your essays.
You will be graded on the following criteria deftly articulated by the great professor Annie Merrill
Ingram: a focused thesis and a well-organized essay, quality of writing, comprehension and mastery of
material, critical thinking, understanding and intelligent application of theoretical concepts, and original
interpretation.
Essays must be typed, double-spaced and follow MLA guidelines; include a Works Cited page. Please
make sure the following information is listed on the cover page:
Your Name
ENG 110
Instructor’s Name
Date
Assignment #
The assignments should be submitted at the beginning of class; see the Reading Schedule for the due
dates. I expect the essays to be turned in on time. Your paper will be considered late immediately after
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the deadline; if a paper due at 11:30AM is handed in at 1PM the same day, it will still be considered late
and will be graded accordingly. The late paper will be lowered one letter grade (from a B to a C) for each
24 hours that it is late (just to reiterate – that 24 hour period begins immediately after the deadline is past,
and includes weekends, holidays, and breaks). Absence the day a paper is due does not excuse its
lateness. I will only grant extensions under extenuating circumstances; to make use of such an extension
you must notify me well in advance of the due date. I will not grant extensions on or after the due
date. I will not grade essays delivered electronically, nor will I grade unpledged essays; such essays
will receive a failing grade. As you may already know, computers and printers have an uncanny ability to
misbehave just before a paper is due – so plan ahead to ensure that your paper is not late due to a
“technological malfunction.”
The Honor Code
The Honor Code is one we all take very seriously, and I expect each one of us to live up to that oath. All
work, therefore, must be original and pledged. I will not accept essays that were written for another
course, and I will not grade unpledged essays. Plagiarism is a serious violation of academic integrity and
carries serious consequences. I have no problem pursuing these options, if you submit work that is not
your own. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to talk to me.
Audio and Video Recording Policy
Davidson College policy prohibits audio/video recording of classes by students without
permission of the instructor. You may not record class sessions or portions thereof unless the Dean of
Students has authorized recording as an academic accommodation for a qualified student with a disability
and has notified me of that authorization. All such recordings are for the sole use of the individual student
and may not be reproduced, sold, posted online, or otherwise distributed.
Reviews
Two (2) reviews and one (1) self-scheduled comprehensive final examination; see the Reading
Schedule for dates. More information to follow closer to the date of the tests. If you arrive late, you will
not be given additional time to complete the review. These will be closed-book exams. Make-up exams
will only be given under extenuating circumstances; if you need to make up an exam, please make
arrangements with me at least a week ahead of the test date listed on the syllabus.
GRADE BREAKDOWN:
Attendance
Class Participation
Essay One (2-3 pages)
Essay Two (5-6 pages)
Reviews (2)
Final Exam
10%
10%
10%
25%
20%
25%
A=4 A-=3.7 B+=3.3 B=3 B-=2.7 C+=2.3 C=2 C-=1.7 D+=1.3 D=1 F=0
Accommodations for Students with Disabilities
Please feel comfortable talking to me about what I can do to best accommodate your learning needs. I
urge you to do so early in the semester, so we can all plan accordingly. If you have not already done so,
you should be in touch with Kathy Bray (894-2225) who will take care of the needful in both this and
your other classes.
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READING SCHEDULE
WEEK 1
1/12 (M)
Introduction to the course and requirements
Dickinson: “Pain has an element of blank” (handout)
Just the Two of Us: The Doctor-Patient Relationship
1/14 (W)
Williams: “The Practice” (Moodle)
1/16 (F)
Auden: “The Art of Healing” (Moodle; in “Collected Poems”)
WEEK 2
1/19 (M)
No class – Martin Luther King Jr. Day
1/21 (W)
Frost: “Out, Out” (Moodle)
1/23 (F)
Sacks: “The Autist Artist” (Moodle)
WEEK 3
1/26 (M)
Bulgakov: “The Steel Windpipe” (Moodle)
1/28 (W)
Doyle: “Behind the Times” (Moodle)
1/30 (F)
Doyle: “The Doctors of Hoyland” (Moodle)
[Get a head start on your reading for 2/9 and 2/11]
WEEK 4
2/2 (M)
Doyle: “The Case of Lady Sannox” (Moodle)
[Get a head start on your reading for 2/9 and 2/11]
2/4 (W)
Gawande: “The Case of the Red Leg” (in Complications)
[Get a head start on your reading for 2/9 and 2/11]
2/6 (F)
Gawande: “Whose Body Is It, Anyway?” (in Complications)
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[Get a head start on your reading for 2/9 and 2/11]
Health and Illness: Cultural Codings
WEEK 5
2/9 (M)
Gilman: “The Yellow Wallpaper” (the short story in The Yellow Wallpaper)
2/11 (W)
Gilman: “The Breakdown” (339-344), “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper?” and “On the Reception of
The Yellow Wallpaper” (348-351) (All in The Yellow Wallpaper)
Mitchell: from “Wear and Tear…,” from “Nervousness…,” and from “The Evolution…” (133-150) (in
The Yellow Wallpaper)
Kellogg: from The Ladies Guide to Health and Disease (157-173) (in The Yellow Wallpaper)
Meadows: “Puerperal Mania” (174-180) (in The Yellow Wallpaper)
Barker: from The Puerperal Diseases (180-188) (in The Yellow Wallpaper)
2/13 (F)
Shakespeare: Macbeth (Act I)
**ESSAY DUE at the beginning of class**
WEEK 6
2/16 (M)
Macbeth (Acts II and III)
2/18 (W)
Macbeth (Acts IV and V)
2/20 (F)
Ehrenreich: “Welcome to Cancerland” (Moodle)
WEEK 7
2/23 (M)
**REVIEW**
2/25 (W)
Auden: “Miss Gee” (Moodle; in “Collected Poems”)
2/27 (F)
Orwell: “How the Poor Die” (Moodle)
WEEK 8
Spring Break
No class on 3/2, 3/4, and 3/6
WEEK 9
3/9 (M)
Edson: Wit
3/11 (W)
Dickens: “A Curious Dance Round a Curious Tree” (Moodle)
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3/13 (F)
Updike: “From the Journal of a Leper” (Moodle)
WEEK 10
3/16 (M)
Austen: Persuasion (9-47)
3/18 (W)
Persuasion (47-98)
3/20 (F)
Persuasion (99-203)
WEEK 11
3/23 (M)
Campo: “What the Body Told,” “The 10,000th AIDS Death in San Francisco,” “The Good Doctor,” “The
Patient-Doctor Relationship,” “Phone Call,” “Just the Facts,” “The Abdominal Exam,” “from V. Elegy
for the AIDS Virus”
3/25 (W)
Browning: “Porphyria’s Lover” (Moodle)
[Get a head start on your reading for 4/1]
Human Perfection: Hubris or Progress?
3/27 (F)
Hawthorne: “The Birthmark” (Moodle)
WEEK 12
3/30 (M)
Gawande: “Education of a Knife,” “When Good Doctors Go Bad” (in Complications)
4/1 (W)
Shelley: Frankenstein (5-43)
4/3 (F)
Frankenstein (44-151)
WEEK 13
4/6 (M)
Easter Break
No class on 4/6
4/8 (W)
Frankenstein (152-225)
4/10 (F)
Bell: “Frankenstein’s Monster” (Moodle)
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WEEK 14
4/13 (M)
Vonnegut: Fortitude (Moodle)
4/15 (W)
**REVIEW**
Until Death Do Us Part: The Pain of Suffering
4/17 (F)
Gawande: “The Pain Perplex” (in Complications)
Atwood: “The Woman Who Could Not Live With Her Faulty Heart” (Moodle)
WEEK 15
4/20 (M)
Clifton: “dialysis,” “donor,” “scar,” “the lost baby poem,” and “poem to my uterus” (Moodle)
4/22 (W)
Burney: “Mastectomy” (Moodle)
4/24 (F)
Auden: “Musee des Beaux Arts” (Moodle; in “Collected Poems”)
WEEK 16
4/27 (M)
Auden: “Letter to a Wound,” “Surgical Ward” [“They are and they suffer…”] ” (Moodle; in “Collected
Poems”)
4/29 (W)
Whitman: “The Wound Dresser” (Moodle)
5/1 (F)
Gawande: “Casualties of War” (Moodle)
**ESSAY DUE at the beginning of class**
WEEK 17
5/4 (M)
Dickinson: “The heart asks pleasure first,” “After great pain, a formal feeling comes,” “My life closed
twice,” “Much madness is divinest sense,” “I heard a fly buzz when I died,” “I felt a funeral in my brain,”
“I felt a cleaving in my mind,” “Death is like the insect,” “Because I could not stop for death” (Moodle)
5/6 (W)
Optional Class
5/7(Th)
Reading Day
***FINAL EXAM (SELF-SCHEDULED)***
Exam Period 12/8-13 (Seniors: 12/8-11)