ENG 272K — Introduction to Literature: Culture and Literature: Literature and Medicine
This course focuses on literature related to health and medicine. From darkly comic narratives of the Black Plague through the rise and fall of hysteria to depictions of the AIDS crisis and modern pandemics like the Spanish Flu and COVID-19, this course examines literature centered on medical practices and their impacts on communities, individuals, and culture from the early modern period through contemporary times. Medical issues explored in the literature will range widely: disease, medical ethics, mental illness, death and dying, pain and suffering, physical disability, aging, cognitive differences, and gender fluidity and identity are all possible areas of discussion.