Narrative Medicine

Anthropologist Byron Good attests "we cannot have direct access to the experience of others' illness, not even through in-depth investigations: one of the ways in which we can learn more from the experience of others is to listen to the stories of what has happened to other people."Narrative Medicine supports the exchange and reception of such stories. One of its central goals is to hone skills of close reading and critical analysis to deepen the capacity to understand stories when they become available. Close attention to texts allows us to note what is missing, which ideas are in tension, and how literary forms, devices and tropes shore up (and at times disrupt) conventional ideas of "sickness" and "health."The work of this course begins with an initial module on Narrative Competencies (What Stories Are). Here, we'll pay close attention to narrative forms and tools, using theoretical and applied works by Rita Charon, Sayantani Das Gupta, Arthur Kleinmann, Ann Jurecik, Arthur Frank, and David Morris to consider point of view and unreliable narrators; the plots and temporalities of illness; tragic and comedic "forms" of illness; and illness and performativity. In this part of class, we'll read essays, memoir, lyric, and drama, including The Death of Ivan Ilyich; The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Margaret Edsel's Wit; Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, and Souleika Jaouad's Between Two Kingdoms. Reading journals and personal narrative will accompany other creative and analytical assignments.In our second module (Narrative Ethics: What Stories Do) well draw from narrative ethics to explore the dilemmas of representing what Thomas Couser has called "vulnerable subjects." What does it mean to write about someone who is ill, or dying, or living with mental illness, neurodiversity, or cognitive changes late in life? What are the risks of such representation? Authors in this part of the course may include Foucault, Sontag, Ehrenreich, Couser, Jamison, and Gawande.Class members will take turns giving short presentations and leading portions of class discussion.This course will count as an advanced elective for undergraduates in Medical Humanities.