EN1102 6.

0 Health and Literature F/W 19-20

CD Elena Basile

AP/EN1102 6.0 HEALTH AND LITERATURE

FALL 2019 - WINTER 2020

Course Director: Elena Basile, ebasile@yorku.ca

Lecture: Monday 10:30-12:30 CLH J

Office Hours: Monday 2:30-3:30 pm, Atkinson 626

OUTLINE

This course examines the relation between literature and medicine, particularly exploring how
health and disease are conceptualized in Western culture and how contemporary writers address
the ailments of individuals, communities and societies via poetry, storytelling, literary non-fiction
and graphic novels. Among the issues we will tackle are the following: (a) What do myths, stories
and different practices of storytelling tell us about a culture’s attitude towards the body,
community and its relation to the environment? (b) Are there diseases that shape particular
moments in time and can they be read as symptomatic of social ills? (c) What are the ethics of
care and caregiving in both institutional hospital settings and among non-professional caregivers?
(d) How do contemporary writers deal with trauma, loss and their manifold (historical, social,
personal) dimensions? (e) What is the significance of ritual in healing, and how does writing
become a practice of healing? Throughout the course we will pay attention to how different
narratives of illness bear witness to the historical and political dimensions of medical practices,
specifically as they relate to the physical, social and cultural environments within which they
operate.

GRADE BREAKDOWN

1 In-class Reading Exercise (Oct 7) 10%

1 Reading Response (Nov 11) 15%
Midterm Exam 20%
Essay Outline (SOI, AB and Outline due between Feb 1-16) 10%
Essay (1800 words, due Friday March 6 on Moodle) 20%
Final Exam 20%
Participation in Lecture and Online 5%

REQUIRED BOOKS

These books can be bought at the University Bookstore or accessed via Course Reserves at the
Scott Library.

Wade Davis The Wayfinders; Anne Fadiman The Spirit Catches You; Oliver Sacks The Man Who
Mistook his Wife for a Hat; Marge Piercy Woman on the Edge of Time; Rebecca Brown The Gifts
of the Body; Jamaica Kincaid My Brother; Shani Mootoo Cereus Blooms at Night; Alison
Bechdel, Are you My Mother?; Maylis de Kerangal Mending the Living; Kazuo Ishiguro Never
Let Me Go.

Critical readings will be available on Moodle.

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 EN1102 6.0 Health and Literature F/W 19-20
CD Elena Basile

SCHEDULE
DATE TITLE OF LECTURE READINGS

September Course Introduction Bruchac The Remedies

9
September Health, Stories, Communities, Wade Davis The Wayfinders
16 Cultures: A planetary
Perspective
September Illness as broken story Howard Brody, Excerpts from
23 Stories of Sickness pp. 44-60

Arthur Kleinman "The Meaning of Symptom and

Disorders" (pp. 23-37)

September Imagining a Way out of here Marge Piercy Woman at the Edge of Time
30 (Part 1)

October 7 Imagining a Way out of here Marge Piercy Woman on the Edge of Time
(Part 2)
Kafer “Debating Feminist Futures” (pp. 1-13)
IN-CLASS READING EXERCISE

FALL READING WEEK OCTOBER 12 -18

October 21 Stories of Health and Illness I: Anne Fadiman The Spirit Catches You and You
The question of culture Fall Down

October 28 Stories of Health and Illness II: Fadiman – cont.d

Intercultural conflict and
mistranslation Kleinman, Eisenberg and Good "Culture, Illness,
and Care" (pp.15- 22)

November The good stories and the Arthur Frank. Excerpts from Letting Stories
4 dangerous Stories Breathe (pp. 61-77)

November Romantic Science I: The Oliver Sacks The Man Who Mistook His Wife for
11 Doctor's Case History a Hat
Reading Response due

November Romantic Science II: Redefining Sacks -- continued

18 the normal

November Illness in the Risk Society Anne Jurecic "Life Narratives in the Risk
25 Society" (79-87) and Stephen Jay Gould "The
Median Isn't the Message" (Moodle)

December FALL REVIEW for MIDTERM MIDTERM EXAM (DECEMBER EXAM PERIOD)
2 EXAM

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 EN1102 6.0 Health and Literature F/W 19-20
CD Elena Basile

WINTER

January 6 Writing as therapy I: Visually Alyson Bechdel, Are you my

re-mapping the self mother?

January 13 Writing as Therapy II Winnicott, excerpts from Playing

Library Workshop and Reality (p. 129-155) Bechdel
and Winnicott-- Continued

January 20 Writing as Therapy: Dealing Jamaica Kincaid My Brother

with Death and Trauma
Essay Proposal: Statement of
Interest
January 27 The geopolitics of Health
Essay Proposal: Annotated
Bibliography
Freud “Mourning and Melancholia”
157-168)
Jamaica Kincaid –My Brother
(continued)
Scott “Trauma’s Presentation”;
Stolorow. Excerpts from Trauma
and Human Existence

February 3 Trauma and the Weight of Mootoo Cereus Blooms at Night

History I
van Der Kolk, excerpts from The
Essay Proposal: Outline Body Keeps the Score

February 10 Trauma and the Weight of Mootoo Cereus Blooms at Night

History II
READING WEEK FEBRUARY 15-21

February 24 Illness, and Social Stigma: AIDS Rebecca Brown The Gifts of the
and the Plight of the Caregiver Body

March 2 Organ Transplant and the Maylis De Kerangal Mend the

question of death Living
WINTER ESSAY DUE on Moodle
Friday March 6
March 9 Attending to the Body. Mourning Mend the Living -- continued
rituals.
Jean-Luc Nancy “The Intruder”

March 16 Dabbling with the human Kazuo Ishiguro Never Let me Go

March 23 The Question of Happiness Never Let me Go – continued

Excerpts from Jonathan Haidt, The

Happiness Hypothesis (e-book)
March 30 COURSE REVIEW FINAL EXAM (TBA)

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 EN1102 6.0 Health and Literature F/W 19-20
CD Elena Basile

GUIDELINES FOR ASSIGNMENTS

READING RESPONSE (800-1000 words)

You are expected to provide one (1) Reading Response in the Fall term. Your response will count
towards 15% of the final grade. Each week the professor will ask one or two (1 or 2) questions
pertaining to the readings of the week. You can submit your Reading Response as early as the
first question is posted on Moodle, but you shouldn’t submit your response beyond the deadline
indicated on the schedule (November 11). Choose one (1) question from one of the lectures and
submit your response before or on the deadline.

MIDTERM AND FINAL EXAM

Both the midterm and the final exam for the course will last 3 hours and will require essay writing
skills. Further details about the exam will be made known during Course Review at the end of
each semester.

STATEMENT OF INTEREST, BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ESSAY OUTLINE

You have one major essay due in the Winter term, on March 7. In order to avoid last minute panic,
and start off early on your research, you will be required to start thinking in writing about your
topic well in advance of that deadline. Between January 31 and February 14 you will be asked to
work on (a) thinking about the topic you want to write on, i.e., a Statement of Interest; (b) doing
some preliminary library research on it, i.e., an Annotated Bibliography; and (c) drafting a
structure for your essay, i.e. an Essay Outline. Each of these assignments will be discussed in
small groups in class, and I will give some immediate feedback. The Statement of Interest is on
a Pass/Fail basis. Not handing in the Statement of Interest will lead to 2 points being detracted
from the overall 10%. Marks for the Annotated Bibliography and the Essay Outline will be each
worth 5%. More detailed instructions will be handed out in January.

Topics for the Winter Essay will be posted at the beginning of the Winter Term. For this
assignment you will be required to do a close reading of a text from the course, integrating your
analysis with a critical text gathered from your own independent research.

LATE SUBMISSION POLICY and ACADEMIC HONESTY

All assignments should be handed in via MOODLE on the due date. Email submissions will only
be accepted as proof of work completed before the deadline. Be advised that the Course Director
has the right to request a hardcopy of your work, even if you have submitted it online early on.

The year is long, and life happens. I will accept ONE late submission (maximum one week)
without penalty throughout the year, after which all other late submissions will be penalized by
2% per day unless there is a documented emergency. If you are a regular procrastinator or are
experiencing life difficulties that go beyond the scope of the course, please contact me and
arrange to meet with me during office hours. There is always room for understanding – as long as
I know what your problems are.

Be advised that plagiarism is a serious offence and penalties can range from a failing grade to a
suspension from the university. I am very committed to academic honesty and fostering an
environment where genuine effort is prized over unnecessary shortcuts. During the year, I
will offer clarifying remarks on what it actually means to plagiarize (sometimes we do it because
we’re desperate, other times we just don’t know any better). In the meantime, I encourage you to
read the information posted here carefully:
http://www.yorku.ca/academicintegrity/students/index.htm