Undergraduate Course: Medicine in Literature 2: Medical Ethics in Literature (ENLI10354)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course examines the representation of medical ethics in twentieth- and twenty-first century literature. It particularly focuses on the relationship between this development and other theoretical discourses of embodiment, the ethical dilemmas encountered by doctors and medical professionals and the representation of illness and abnormality in literature, through the lens of various theories of healing and care and posthumanist ethics. It is not merely an exercise in mapping various ethical debates. Taking in a small annual number of medical students, it allows English Literature and Medical students, alike, to view the reading of literature from multiple perspectives, and to examine the ways in which discourses of embodiment and ethical positions change according to shifting political, social and cultural contexts. It will appeal to students who have a particular interest in discourses of embodiment and ethics and the intersection between medicine, science and literature in general. |
| Course description |
Seminar Schedule
1. Course introduction: Thinking through the experience of illness
Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis (1915); extracts from Arthur Frank, The Wounded Storyteller (1997), Rita Charon, Narrative Medicine (2006), British Medical Association Ethics Department, Medical Ethics Today (2004).
2. The Role of the Doctor
Albert Camus, The Plague (1947).
3. The Ethics of Care
Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo¿s Nest (1962); extract from Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilisation: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (1964).
4. Patient Politics
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Cancer Ward (1967).
5. Surgical Conditioning
Angela Carter, The Passion of New Eve (1977); extracts from Helene Cixous, ¿The Laugh of the Medusa¿ (1976), Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (1990), Monique Wittig, ¿One Is Not Born a Woman¿ (1992).
6. INNOVATIVE LEARNING WEEK
7. The Moral Machine
Alasdair Gray, Poor Things (1992).
8. Law and Ethics
Edna O¿Brien, Down by the River (1996).
9. ESSAY WRITING WEEK
10. Gendered Bodies
Jackie Kay, Trumpet (1998); Extract from Judith Halberstam, In A Queer Time and Place (2004).
11. Modification
Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (2003); Julian Savulescu, ¿Genetic Interventions and the Ethics of Enhancement of Human Beings¿ (2007).
12. Cloning
Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let me Go (2005).
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | A MINIMUM of 4 college/university level literature courses at grade B or above (should include no more than one introductory level literature course). Related courses such as civilisation or other interdisciplinary classes, Freshman Year Seminars or composition/creative writing classes/workshops are not considered for admission to this course. Applicants should also note that, as with other popular courses, meeting the minimum does NOT guarantee admission. In making admissions decisions preference will be given to students who achieve above the minimum requirement with the typical visiting student admitted to this course having 4 literature classes at grade A.
** as numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course ** |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2014/15, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 30 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) |
FIRST CLASS INFORMATION: Friday 9 - 10.50, Room 3.14, 50 George Square
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
75 %,
Coursework
25 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
One 2,500 word coursework essay (25%).
Final assessment will consist of an examination essay of 3,000 words for both intercalated BA students and English Literature students (75%).
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| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
| In addition to the skills training common to all English Literature Honours courses (essay-writing, independent reading, group discussion, oral presentation, small-group autonomous learning) this course will introduce students to a wide range of medical ethical issues as these have been represented and debated in literary texts from the nineteenth century to the present day.
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Reading List
Neil Badmington (ed), Posthumanism (2000)
Rosi Braidotti, Transpositions (2006)
Howard Brody, Stories of Sickness (2003)
Rita Charon, Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness (2006)
Mary K. Deshazer, Fractured Borders: Reading Women's Cancer Literature (2005)
Michel Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception (1963) Michel Foucault,
Madness and Civilisation: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (1964)
Arthur Frank, At the Will of the Body (1991)
Arthur Frank, The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics (1997)
Yasmin Gunaratnam and David Oliviere, Narrative and Stories in Health Care: Illness, Dying, and Bereavement (2009)
N. Katherine Hayles, How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics (1999)
Donna Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (1991)
Robert Kastenbaum, The Psychology of Death (1992)
A. F. Kleinman, The Illness Narratives: Suffering, Healing, and the Human Condition (1988)
James J. Sheehan and Morton Sosna (eds), The Boundaries of Humanity: Humans, Animals, Machines (1991)
Bonnie Steinbock, The Oxford Handbook of Bioethics (2007)
Cary Wolfe, What is Posthumanism? (2009)
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Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Katherine Inglis
Tel: (0131 6)50 3617
Email: K.Inglis@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms June Haigh
Tel: (0131 6)50 3620
Email: j.haigh@ed.ac.uk |
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