Reading & Composition

This course will consider a number of literary texts with an eye to how they explore themes of pathology at both the individual and collective levels. Literature frequently involves critical reflections on both characters within texts and the social contexts that shape them: Plays and novels often imagine personal crises, as well as responses to disruptions within familiar or established public orders; lyric poetry can express conflicts between self and society. We will be considering these and other examples of how various literary forms explore the conditions and implications of pathology, or deviation from what is considered “normal” or “healthy.” Does literature tend to reinforce such norms, question them, or some combination of the two? What specific forms and techniques do texts involve in their representations of pathology? What do cultural reflections on pathology reveal about contradictions within systems of normative values and practices? These are some of the questions that will shape our discussion of a series of relevant texts.

This is a writing-intensive course. In addition to active in-class participation, coursework will include frequent short writing assignments and two longer essays.

Required Books:

Homer, The Odyssey

Shakespeare, Hamlet

Sigmund Freud, Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria

Chester Himes, If He Hollers Let Him Go

Marguerite Duras, The Lover

Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye

Additional readings will be available in a course reader