ENGL 265-02, Words and Healing: Literature and Medicine, Spring 1999

Abstract

English 265.2 seeks to explore the relationships between literature and medicine, which are at least as old as the Greeks. Inscribed over the door of the library at Thebes were the words “Medicine for the Soul.” Both Greek empiricism and Epicurean rhetoric found their methodology in the writings of Hippocrates. Designed primarily for pre-med majors, this course will focus on literary works, some by or about physicians, that treat subjects from medicine or medical ethics. We will examine a variety of texts that reveal the emergence of “medical science” from the “medical arts.” We will look at medical issues as portrayed in a variety of literary forms, noting at times the cultural biases that underlie the seemingly neutral discourse of medicine.