Reading & Composition

We tend to think about illness in biological and epidemiological terms; much of our knowledge about health is communicated through the language of medicine and science—we look to doctors, pharmacists, nutritionists, and a range of other experts when seeking advice on how to lead a healthy life. But can science fully convey what it means to be ill? In this class, we will pay close attention to the ways in which illness gets represented in culture. From Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Freud’s Studies on Hysteria to Camus’s The Plague and Lorde’s The Cancer Journals, our readings will be guided by the following questions: How does illness affect one’s sense of self? How have conceptions of illness—and health—changed over time? What are the political dimensions of health? What relationships can we identify between illness and literary form? What role does figurative language play in accounts of illness? And how does health status intersect with other modalities of difference, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, and class?

As part of the University’s R&C sequence, this course is designed, above all, to help students improve their critical writing and reading skills. In addition to regular attendance and participation, requirements include a series of essays—drafts and revisions—and short response papers.

Texts will be drawn from the following*:

William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals
Albert Camus, The Plague
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, “White Glasses” in Tendencies
Jamaica Kincaid, My Brother
Roberto Bolaño, “Literature + Illness = Illness” in The Insufferable Gaucho
Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and its Metaphors
Sigmund Freud, Studies on Hysteria (selections)
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

Possible films:

Nick Cassavetes (dir.), My Sister’s Keeper
David France (dir.), How to Survive a Plague

*Please do not purchase texts until after our first meeting.